Commander in Cheat

How Golf Explains Trump

By: Rick Reilly

Narrated by: Rick Reilly

New York Times best seller

"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." (The New Yorker)

"Golf is the spine of this shocking, wildly humorous book, but humanity is its flesh and spirit." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"Every one of Trump's most disgusting qualities surfaces in golf." (The Ringer)

An outrageous indictment of Donald Trump's appalling behavior when it comes to golf - on and off the green - and what it reveals about his character.

Donald Trump loves golf. He loves to play it, buy it, build it, and operate it. He owns 14 courses around the world and runs another five, all of which he insists are the best on the planet. He also claims he's a three handicap, almost never loses, and has won an astonishing 18 club championships.

How much of all that is true? Almost none of it, acclaimed sportswriter Rick Reilly reveals in this unsparing look at Trump in the world of golf.

Based on Reilly's own experiences with Trump as well as interviews with over 100 golf pros, amateurs, developers, and caddies, Commander in Cheat is a startling and at times hilarious indictment of Trump and his golf game. You'll learn how Trump cheats (sometimes with the help of his caddies and Secret Service agents), lies about his scores (the "Trump Bump"), tells whoppers about the rank of his courses and their worth (declaring that every one of them is worth $50 million), and tramples the etiquette of the game (driving on greens doesn't help). Trump doesn't brag so much, though, about the golf contractors he stiffs, the course neighbors he intimidates, or the way his golf decisions wind up infecting his political ones.

For Trump, it's always about winning. To do it, he uses the tricks he picked up from the hustlers at the public course where he learned the game as a college kid, and then polished as one of the most bombastic businessmen of our time. As Reilly writes, "Golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a man." Commander in Cheat "paints a side-splitting portrait of a congenital cheater" (Esquire), revealing all kinds of unsightly truths Trump has been hiding.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Rick Reilly (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"[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

"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

An accurate summation of 45s morals through golf.

Every story helps me understand the Idiocracy that is Trump. Golf sets a baseline for character and ethics and Trump can belch whatever narrative he wants but his actions in the golf world speak his truth.

Trump's flawed character seen thru a golf prism

Cheating - at anything - reveals much about a man's character (or lack thereof). This account of Donald Trump, from the perspective of how he plays, manages & views the game of golf, explains much (if not all) you need to know about him.

He doesn't respect the rules. He doesn't respect the etiquette. He doesn't respect the game.

Also, the audiobook is a HUGE plus. Reily's voice inflections and impersonations really tells the whole story. I think would be difficult to discern just by reading the naked page. It's one of those occasions when the audio book is truly better than the written one.

http://a.co/dbTfiGD

It's a Comedy

Love this book and especially author's reading. True, but sarcastic. Learned about some golf and terms, some players and courses. I don't play. I would probably play like DT which would horiffy my purist dad. He would die before cheat.

Best book on Trump

I’ve read ‘em all and I know zero about golf.
But this is far and away the best. It shows who Trump is in a visceral way. The pettiness. The narcissism. The meanness. I’m glad I read it just as the Mueller report was released. It tells the everyday side of who he is which colors in the picture.

Enjoyable on all levels

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Rick Reilly can write, research AND be entertaining. Let’s face it, Trump is a disgrace as a president, but what’s equally vexing is his lack of decorum as a golfer. I had seen the pictures of him driving across greens. As an intermediate golfer I was appalled and couldn’t believe that more wasn’t made of this in golfing and political circles. To me, at the time, it seemed like the kind of lack of integrity that would send up red flags around the world. After reading Mr. Reilly’s book, I see that those in the Trump golfing circle already knew what to expect. If only they had found a way to warn the rest of the free world. The book is well-written and cites credible witnesses, statistics and other verifiable publications. I’m impressed. This wasn’t just a bunch of sore-loser stories strung together. Well done. Well done. Well don.

Don't care for Golf at all

Don't care for Golf at all but I found this book to be excellent. I loved learning about the game but that is not what the book was about, you just learn about golf while reading. He talks about all the past Presidents that played the game, how they played and who they played with. More importantly it talked about or President and how he cheats every time he plays, he even has the secret service doing his cheating. I never like Donald Trump but this book told me, he is just the low life that I thought he was. He is a despicable human being. Bottom line, I couldn't stop listening to this book.

Closest we'll get to Hunter S. Thompson on Trump

This is an excellent book! Easily the best and most enjoyable book that excoriates Trump. I heartily encourage you to get the audiobook, brilliantly read by the witty, yet exasperated author. (At the end of the reading he has an epilog expressing his exhaustion! My condolences to him!)

You do have to know a tiny bit about golf but do not have to like golf at all! Rick Reilly is an excellent writer, not just an excellent sports writer. He's so good that he's now got me interested in golf!

But the genius of the book is that you go on a tour of a psychopath's life and behaviors, as exemplified by his perverse passion for cheating at golf. As I read through this Hunter S. Thompson-like romp through madness it painted a movie of how #PresidentPsychopath is ripping through the obliteration of our democracy.

Even though its focus is golf, this is the best book to help you understand the biggest liar and cheat in history. As you watch this movie unfold in your mind, you'll shudder along with the exasperated author, just imagining what must be happening to our nation and the future of the planet with this monster unleashed in the White House.

I'm glad I read this after finishing psychopath Chris Christie's hagiography of Trump. There is no way I could have finished that book if I had read Reilly's book first. Christie's portrays a lie that Trump is an ENTIRELY good and kind man, something entirely refuted by Rick Reilly's magnificent tour de psycho.

This book will set off all your internal alarms. Because it's not about Trump's politics, this is also the best book to give any of your friends who still adore Trump. The vast majority of golfers are Republicans and there is only one Republican in this book who doesn't spew out vitriol about this despicable freak of nature. And that guy is Trump's caddie.

Again, get the audiobook. Reilly is an extremely talented journalist. Despite the grim specter of a president-in-cheat that he describes, it's a lot of fun. If you think you've heard it all about Trump, you haven't. This is the closest we'll get to a Hunter S. Thompson assessment of Trump.

The Mueller Report for Golf Court

All the evidence is here. Start the process for golf impeachment. Now is the time.

Fore, but I claim two

The narcissistic, pathological liar, that Trump is, blossoms in his golf game. Truly, it is difficult to believe how childish, pathetic and pathological our president behaves. While playing golf, he acts as though he stopped maturing at age 11. He cannot be trusted on the golf course to be anything but the fearful, spoiled and a grossly arrogant cheater. He cheats in tournaments, even on TV, and when everyone is watching. It is not one story or one round of golf but a lifetime of cheating and lying, to win at any cost. Muhammad Ali said he was the greatest, his actions proved that he was. Trump is a petulant bullying child, fearful that everyone will find out that actually he has become his own worst nightmare.

Golf= boring, this book = not

I am not a sports minded individual and find the entire subject to mostly be boring… But occasionally something, such as this book will come along, and I simply cannot put it down…

Mr. Riley is not assume that everybody reading this book knows everything, there is to know about the sport… So he explains any jargon that comes along in an entertaining and not condescending fashion

He is a very entertaining story teller and it is like you are in the golf cart with him… I can almost smell the cheeseburgers through the phone… This was a seemingly very quick read… I have a little over an hour left before the book is finished and it seems like I just started it…

The stories we learn about Donald Trump are not all that surprising over all but the way in which they were related was entertaining… I like how the sport is explained to be one of integrity and self governance… And I appreciate how the rest of Donald Trump and his presidency can be viewed through the filter of golf when scene from this angle… It is not surprising but it does explain a lot