President Donald Trump and son Eric Trump attend LIV Golf tournament this week. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump is participating in golf tournaments over the weekend, and a statement on his progress sent out by the pool went viral Saturday among members of the press for being “tone deaf” or worse, after a terrible week for the stock market and the president opting out of a solemn ceremony for fallen American servicemembers to attend the golfing event.
On Friday, Trump chose not to attend the dignified transfer of remains of four Americans who were killed in a training exercise in Lithuania, instead sending Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Trump then attended an LIV Golf event.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said the move shows Trump just doesn’t care about “certain optics.” But military family members who spoke to Mediaite certainly cared that he did not participate.
On Saturday, Trump took part in a Senior Club Championship at his Trump National course in Jupiter Florida. It was from there that the update on his standing was sent out. “The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow,” was the line of text sent out by the pool that caught fire on Saturday.
Per pool: “The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow.”
I wonder who will win? 🤔
— John T. Bennett (@BennettJohnT) April 5, 2025
Members of the press were among the first to pounce on the news. Former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd focused on the economy in his reaction, suggesting as many did that the competition is a sham and everyone is losing to Trump on purpose.
Just astonishingly tone deaf. Crater the world economy then spend the weekend golfing against Washington General-like competitors. Seems fairly clear he’s not interested in running for any office again. https://t.co/2HzLvx744R
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) April 5, 2025
CNN’s Jake Tapper was more brief, simply sarcastically responding “great news!”
Great news, everybody!!!!! https://t.co/IRo26J2DC5
— Jake Tapper 🦅 (@jaketapper) April 5, 2025
MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire and the Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell joined in:
As the markets crash and retirement accounts vanish: https://t.co/j9BevULhjd
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) April 5, 2025
Our President crashed the economy at the end of the week and is spending the weekend golfing and putting our North Korea-style updates about it. https://t.co/xjEZbWzvad
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) April 5, 2025
As did The View’s Ana Navarro-Cárdenas and other political commentators:
Let them eat cake. https://t.co/ototutpzoA
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) April 5, 2025
Crash the economy, defy a judges order to return a man from a foreign prison infamous for torture, hit the links https://t.co/DitDW5teIP
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) April 5, 2025
There was this amazing observation from climate journalist Matthew Zeitlin, retweeted by CNN’s Brian Stelter, showing the front page of The Wall Street Journal:
the markets are so bad they turned the WSJ front page into the Huffington Post homepage https://t.co/NLMqP5Eucd
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) April 5, 2025
There were dozens more reactions from across the media landscape, many of which mentioned North Korea, 1984, Nero fiddling while Rome burned, or the phrase “Let Them Eat Cake”.
Nero gently lowers his fiddle in respect. https://t.co/amYgSi4oqj
— Colby Hall (@colbyhall) April 5, 2025
One of the emperor Augustus’s best tricks for legitimizing his authoritarian rule: he made a point of losing at games, joking about his bad luck, and paying his forfeits cheerfully. It made his reign look less arbitrary and terrifying to fellow members of the Roman elite. https://t.co/DidrLGZOmJ
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 5, 2025
We are all so very proud of Dear Leader. https://t.co/iUkpV6uokR
— Bryan S. Myrick (@BryanMyrick) April 5, 2025
Remarkable streak of never losing at golf https://t.co/ZEXGRSpdpJ
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) April 5, 2025
This will be the 3rd championship golf event in which Trump has competed during his second term. He’s won the first two. One has to imagine he’s a heavy favorite here as well. Unlike those first two, this is the first event taking place amid the collapse of the stock market. https://t.co/8o7S9887XM
— Sam Stein (@samstein) April 5, 2025
Trump SKIPPED a ceremony for fallen soldiers to attend a golf tournament by Saudi Arabia at his club.
Here’s Fox News manufacturing outrage when Biden looked at his watch at the SAME ceremony. pic.twitter.com/oLyC4dy4rL
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) April 5, 2025
And it was a common theme in headlines and social media posts from cable news to The Daily Show and on down to local channels.
Fox News attacking Obama for golfing but make the footage Trump pic.twitter.com/UVcsNH0soQ
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 4, 2025
As stock market continues plummeting over tariffs, Trump spends the day at his golf course
Full story: https://t.co/iyosbCDlEA pic.twitter.com/cUn5cOIn5N
— WWL-TV (@WWLTV) April 4, 2025
Crash the economy, defy a judges order to return a man from a foreign prison infamous for torture, hit the links https://t.co/DitDW5teIP
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) April 5, 2025
CNN on Friday night ran a montage of Trump complaining about former president Barack Obama playing golf when in office, with anchor Abby Phillip saying it “appears to be true” that Trump “doesn’t give an F.”
