Fox News anchor Bret Baier doesn’t think Donald Trump cheats at golf — or, at least, he hasn’t seen the president do so “in person.” Baier was asked the question as part of a panel during the NOTUS “Media and Democracy: Covering Trump 2.0” event.
Baier’s conversation with The Wall Street Journal journalist Josh Dawsey was the banner event. Dawsey noted that Baier has “spent a lot of time with Trump off camera and playing golf,” something the anchor immediately said was a “rare event.”
“I have had those interactions and I think any journalist would take the off the record time with a president of the United States to pick his brain on what’s next, to talk about what the next thing might be that he doesn’t talk about publicly,” Baier added.
He also described Trump as “very open” and noted “he really one, is funny and can make people laugh, and two, focuses on them like they’re the one in the room that has [his] attention.”
After Baier said Trump is “a very good golfer,” Dawsey asked, “Does he cheat?”
“No. I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen it. Now, caddies may be very active, but I haven’t seen it in person,” Baier answered.
Dawsey explained that the asked the question due to allegations raised by author Rick Riley, who formerly worked at ESPN and Sports Illustrated. In his 2019 book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump” Riley wrote, “To say ‘Donald Trump cheats’ is like saying ‘Michael Phelps swims.’”
“He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that’s how he plays golf … if you’re playing golf with him, he’s going to cheat,” Riley also wrote.
