(Manuel Balce Ceneta/Alex Brandon/AP photos)

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has — publicly — made grandiose claims about President Donald Trump’s golf game over the years, vouching for him as a highly-skilled player. But privately? It seems Graham was much less charitable in his assessment.

The New York Times obtained transcripts of Graham testifying before a grand jury in 2022 as part of a election interference case in Georgia. And at one point, Graham was asked by a prosecutor whether Trump cheated at golf. The senator’s answer strongly suggested the president does indeed take liberties with his score.

“Some people say you may outdrive him, but you’re not going to outdrive his caddy,” Graham said. “It is what it is.”

Publicly, Graham has sounded a very different note about Trump’s prowess on the links. The senator claimed the president, in October 2017, shot an even-par round in difficult conditions.

“I thought it was all bullsh*t too,” Graham said of Trump’s golfing ability in an interview with reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin. “So, we go play golf for the first time. You know, I’ve heard this, I’ve heard that. So we play in October, it’s kinda raining, he shot even par. Missed a three-footer…and he would’ve been one under. But even par, playing by the rules of the gods. After that, he started helping me with my game.”

Graham even claimed, back in March, that he teamed up with Trump, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player to win a club championship at one of the president’s courses in south Florida.

That club championship was one of six Trump claimed to have captured in 2025 alone. The president recently claimed he has won 38 club championships total.

Of course, critics remain highly skeptical of that figure.

“He cheats like a mafia accountant,” sportswriter Rick Reilly alleged in a 2019 CNN interview — after having written a book on the subject of Trump’s golfing. “He cheats crazy. He cheats whether you’re watching or not. He cheats whether you like it or not.”

A viral video last July also fueled speculation about Trump being a golf cheat. The video appeared to show Trump’s caddy walking out ahead of him and then casually flipping a ball into short grass — which Trump then lined up to play.

The post Lindsey Graham Suggested Trump Was a Golf Cheat in Secret Grand Jury Testimony first appeared on Mediaite.