Bethpage Black<\/a> course, a show of force that he used on the campaign trail with his private plane and has continued with his government-issued ride.<\/p>\nWhen Trump stepped away from the course after watching the afternoon fourball matches tee off, some people in the stands behind him chanted \u201c48,\u201d a suggestion that they want the 45th and 47th president to serve an unconstitutional third term.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing a hell of a job for the country,” said Phil Dunn of Pittsburgh. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to bring people together.”<\/p>\n
As for Comey, Dunn said, \u201cit was treasonous what he did.\u201d After prosecutors targeted Trump while he was out of office \u2014 for keeping classified documents, for trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election and for paying hush money to a porn star \u2014 \u201cthis is what you get back,\u201d Dunn said.<\/p>\n
Comey is charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. He said he will fight the charges, describing them as a consequence of standing up to Trump.<\/p>\n
Golf has always been something of a refuge for Trump. He owns several courses and visits often on the weekends to play and hold meetings. On the day the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, he played a round in Virginia, ensconced in a bubble of adulation despite voters\u2019 rejection.<\/p>\n
The \u2018People’s Country Club’ <\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Ryder Cup represented a synthesis at the heart of Trump\u2019s political appeal as a billionaire with populist tastes. Although golf has a reputation as an elitist sport, Bethpage, on Long Island, is known as the \u201cPeople\u2019s Country Club,\u201d and it\u2019s one of the few public courses to host professional tournaments. The course is about 27 miles (44 kilometers) east of Manhattan, in a suburban county that Trump won in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Ryder Cup draws a patriotic scene since it pits American players against Europeans. Over-the-top attire \u2014 red-white-and-blue overalls, bald eagle shirts and even tricorner hats \u2014 are common sights.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow Watergate does not bother me,\u201d Lynyrd Skynyrd sang over the loudspeaker. \u201cDoes your conscience bother you? Tell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president arrived through a tunnel beneath the grandstand, an announcer heralding his arrival. The crowd roared and broke into more \u201cUSA!\u201d chants. European fans countered with \u201cOle!\u201d but were quickly drowned out. Trump saluted as New York City firefighter Bryan Robinson sang the national anthem. The crowd erupted again as a quartet of military jets raced across the sky.<\/p>\n
He then watched from behind a glass barrier near the first tee and the 18th green as the day’s second round of matches got underway.<\/p>\n
Trump left his perch to greet U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who gave him a thumbs-up and bowed to him. Bradley also did an imitation of the arm-pumping dance that Trump made famous on the campaign trail and several players, including U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, followed suit.<\/p>\n
Trump has often harnessed the platform of sports to broaden his reach in American culture. His armored limousine led drivers on two ceremonial laps at the Daytona 500, and already this month he mingled with the New York Yankees in their locker room and attended the U.S. Open tennis tournament.<\/p>\n
Sports will become more central to Trump’s presidency <\/p>\n
Sports will only become more central to his presidency. The U.S. is hosting the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the World Cup next year, along with Canada and Mexico. Trump has suggested reshaping the schedule for the soccer tournament to mesh with his political agenda by moving matches away from U.S. cities that he deems unsafe.<\/p>\n
Some of the cities, he said recently in the Oval office, are \u201crun by radical left lunatics,” and he’s proposed expanding deployments of National Guard troops. He added that \u201cif I think it isn\u2019t safe, we\u2019ll move it to a different city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little of these controversies were on people’s minds at Bethpage on Friday. <\/p>\n
Jody Erwin, of Houston, wore a Captain America costume and a red American flag hat from Trump\u2019s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. Erwin played the course on Wednesday, his first time there, and was excited that Trump was attending the Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe supports golf. He loves golf,\u201d Erwin said. “That\u2019s his whole deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erwin brushed off the idea that golf has been a safe space for someone like the president, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think he can ever relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Bruce, who attended from London while decked out in Europe’s blue-and-yellow colors, was less enthusiastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about him, it\u2019s about those 12 players for each team out there,\u201d Bruce said. \u201cIt would be better if he decided not to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Ferraro of Babylon, New York, wore a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat to the tournament and wanted to sit as close to Trump as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more times you can see the president, the more access you get to a president, the better,\u201d Ferraro said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Ryder Cup coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ryder-cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-163165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}