Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump

by Rick Reilly Narrated by Rick Reilly

Overview

An uproarious indictment of Donald Trump's lying, cheating, and poor sportsmanship — by the best-selling author and acclaimed sportswriter.

Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump is an on-the-ground and behind-the-scenes look at Trump's ethics deficit on and off the course. Reilly will transport listeners onto the golf course with President Trump, revealing the absurd ways in which he lies about his feats and what they can tell us about the way he leads off the course in the most important job in the world.

Reilly has been with Trump on the fairway, the green, and in the weeds and has seen firsthand how the president plays — and it's not pretty. Based on his personal experiences and interviews with dozens of golf pros, amateurs, developers, partners, opponents, and even caddies who have firsthand experience with Trump on the course, Reilly takes a deep and often hilarious look at how Trump shamelessly cheats at golf, lies about it, sues over it, bullies with it, and profits off it.

From Trump's ridiculous claim to have won 18 club championships, to his devious cheating tricks, to his tainted reputation as a golf course tycoon, Commander in Cheat tells you everything you need to know about the man.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Golf is the spine of this shocking, wildly humorous book, but humanity is its flesh and spirit....It's all hilarious in Reilly's gifted hands."—Chicago Sun-Times

"The American sportswriting great has written my favorite sports book of 2019...By turns hilarious and shocking. In a game that prides itself on gentlemanly conduct, Trump is exposed by numerous witnesses (most of whom are surprisingly happy to go on the record, a tribute to Reilly's reporting skills) as a first-class cheat....I thought my opinion of the 45th president could not get any lower. I was wrong."—The Times (London), Sports Book of the Year

"Relying on testimony from playing partners, caddies, and former Trump employees, Reilly pokes more holes in Trump's claims than there are sand traps on all of his courses combined. It is by turns amusing and alarming....P.G. Wodehouse would have approved."—The New Yorker

"Commander in Cheat is an incredibly creative book, regardless what you think of President Trump, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum. It takes us places behind the press conferences and the staged interviews....It take us into Trump's past, places where there were no cameras, no speech writers, no handlers, no aides. It is just Donald Trump with his appetites, Donald Trump with his excesses, Donald Trump with his flaws. Donald Trump with both his love for golf, and his propensity to play games with the truth."—The Providence Journal

"Building on his firsthand experience by interviewing scores of golf pros, caddies, and opponents, Reilly paints a side-splitting portrait of a congenital cheater."—Esquire, Most Anticipated Books of the Year

"Assails Trump's 'ethics deficit.'"
—Associated Press

"Reilly uses golf to reveal larger truths. Or, in this case, lies."
—The Arizona Republic

"Diamonds among the divots - [one of] the best golf books ever written....It was not exactly a secret that Trump plays fast and loose with the rules, but Reilly's catalogue of his moral failures takes the breath away....Hilarious and rather alarming stuff."—The Times (UK)

"Great writing...If you really don't like Trump, this is your perfect book."—Chris Matthews, MSNBC's Hardball

"Sportswriting can be a lens into any part of our culture, and [Commander in Cheat] proves my point... a clever way to make sense of White House chaos."—The Week,Books to Read in 2019

"There's a new tell-all book about the president...The specific anecdotes are where Commander in Cheat really takes off."—Stephen Colbert, TheLate Show

"Commander in Cheat is one of the most surprising pieces of muckraking of the Trump era....Reilly's right to say Trump sees a golf course like he does the Oval Office...Every one of Trump's most disgusting qualities surfaces in golf."—The Ringer

"The latest anti-Trump exposé isn't about Russia collusion, his taxes or his tweets. It's about his favorite pastime....Delve[s] into allegations the president isn't always honest out on the course."—Fox News

"An eye-watering account of the president's abuse of the rules of golf....[an] unrelenting hatchet job."
—The Times (London)

"Stunning — and damning."—Golf Digest

"Renowned sports columnist Reilly...has known the president for 30 years...If Reilly was once a Trump favorite, he no longer will be...[An] amusing, entertaining assessment of a congenital liar."—Kirkus Reviews

"A hilarious and well-researched indictment of President Trump and his golf game....Mr. Reilly, probably the most acclaimed sports writer of his generation, details and highlights in incredulous and often times comical fashion...'The Donald,' both before and after he became the nation's 45th president."—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Brilliant...Very, very funny when it comes to the details of what Donald Trump does....[Commander in Cheat is] the great Father's Day Book."—Laurence O'Donnell, MSNBC's The Last Word

"[Commander in Cheat] is filled with vivid allegations about Trump's cheating — how he once threw broadcaster Mike Tirico's ball off the green during a round, how he manipulates the value of his courses to get tax breaks, how he exaggerates his golf scores."—The Washington Post

"Eye-popping."—Los Angeles Times

"A must-read for Democrats and Republicans alike."
—DelcoTimes

"This richly researched expose hilariously pulled down The Donald's golf pants and would have humiliated a normal human. Chapter after chapter reveals the myriad ways Trump egregiously cheats at every conceivable aspect of golf."
—The Colorado Sun

"I laughed uncontrollably."—Ottawa Citizen

“[A] classic work of nonfiction….The book’s tales of cheating are incredible… but those of his grit are even more staggering.”—The 42

“The gifted writer Rick Reilly… did us a great favor by writing a book about how Trump cheats at golf….[Reilly] points out how big an embarrassment Trump is to a sport that values honesty and integrity more than any other.”—Northern Kentucky Tribune

“[Reilly uses] a scalpel rather than an axe to carve Trump up.… All of the sins are nicely researched and chronicled…very well done.”—BuffaloSportsPage.com

“Donald Trump's history as an alleged cheater at golf is brilliantly told in Reilly's Commander in Cheat.”—Irish Examiner

Kirkus Reviews

2019-02-07

How golf explains life and reveals character, particularly when the golfer under consideration is Donald Trump.

Renowned sports columnist Reilly (Tiger, Meet My Sister...: And Other Things I Probably Shouldn't Have Said, 2014, etc.) has known the president for 30 years, from back when he was a star columnist for Sports Illustrated and Trump called him "my favorite writer!" He would often embellish, introducing the journalist to strangers as the president or publisher of SI. Being with Trump back then was "like spending the day in a hyperbole hurricane." If Reilly was once a Trump favorite, he no longer will be, and it will be interesting to see if Trump responds to—or even acknowledges—this book. One of the revelations is that a large percentage of Trump's more caustic tweets have actually come from a guy initially employed as his caddy. This is a book about how Trump lies and cheats constantly, qualities that may come with the territory in his newfound field of politics but which the author believes have no place in the gentlemanly sport of golf. Trump lies about his handicap, about the quality and reputation of his courses, about the profitability or lack thereof of these operations, and even about how much he actually plays. He is apparently "on a pace to play almost triple the amount of golf Obama played," though he frequently criticized his predecessor for playing so often. He cheats on his score, his putts, and the lies of his shots, which miraculously make their way from the rough or even the water onto the fairway. "You can think Trump has made America great again," writes Reilly at the conclusion of his amusing, entertaining assessment of a congenital liar. "You can think Trump has made America hate again. But there's one thing I know: He's made golf terrible again."

Since Reilly takes golf more seriously than politics, making "golf terrible again" is the worst sin of all, but it's one that explains so many others.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173572288
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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