The nation was delivered devastating news late Thursday night: Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, a member of the National Guard, had died from injuries sustained in a shooting attack in Washington, D.C., earlier in the week. Yet, just hours after announcing the young patriot’s tragic passing, President Donald Trump met with reporters and instead chose to boast about winning his latest club championship trophy in golf.
Specialist Beckstrom was critically wounded alongside fellow National Guard member, Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, when suspected gunman Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly opened fire on them in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
The somber Announcement and the Fight for Life
President Donald Trump made the official announcement of Beckstrom’s passing during his Thanksgiving call with U.S. troops. He described the fallen Guardsman as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” who had been “savagely attacked.”
“She’s just passed away. She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her. It’s just happened,” Trump said during the somber call.
Staff Sergeant Wolfe remains hospitalized in critical condition. Authorities also stated that the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was wounded in the incident and remains hospitalized under heavy guard.
President Trump had left Washington to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in Florida and reportedly spent time on the golf course before making the call to U.S. troops.
The Golf Championship Brag
Moments after the emotional announcement of Specialist Beckstrom’s death and shortly following his call with service members, the President shifted focus dramatically. He met with reporters and proceeded to brag about his personal golf skills, claiming to have won his 38th club championship. Earlier in the year, he had claimed a total of 36.
Trump declared himself to be a scratch golfer and proudly claimed he beat a 27-year-old competitor in his latest alleged victory.
“I’ve won 38 of them, legitimately. Every one legitimately,” he stated. “It has to be legitimate, because you have a lot of people following you during club championships.”
He continued, focusing intently on his prowess: “I’ve got to be right around scratch or better… For those that don’t know, in the finals of the club championship last year, with all I was going through, and with no practice, so, I’m a good golfer. You know, I would have to say that. I want to be honest. I have to be honest.”
The Widespread Debate Over Trump’s Wins
The President’s insistence that his numerous club championship victories are “legitimate” has been heavily debated within the golf world and the public sphere. The debate over his scorecards gained such widespread traction that it inspired the book, Commander in Cheat, by author Rick Reilly, which implies that Donald Trump frequently cheats on the golf course—a sentiment echoed by many others.
Reilly, appearing last year on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, broke down his perspective on the President’s conduct in the sport.
“I’ve always said golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a guy,” Reilly said. “And what it reveals about this guy is that he cannot lose. He has to win and he will do anything to cheat.”
Reilly stated that he played golf with the President and witnessed him taking “seven mulligans” and even a “give me chip-in,” a term Reilly claimed to have never heard before.
In response to the author’s claims, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung spoke to People Magazine in 2024, denying the accusations and stating that “Rick fantasizes about having a golf game as good as President Trump.”
Reilly, for his part, maintained that Trump has “never won a championship at a course he doesn’t own and operate,” despite the President’s claims of 23 victories elsewhere. “I don’t know anything about politics, but I know about golf,” Rielly concluded. “I’ve covered it for about 45 years. It’s not a sport where you can cheat. It’s just not in the game.”
The accusations are so persistent that at the golf club Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, caddies reportedly came up with a nickname for the President due to the frequency with which he would allegedly kick his ball back onto the fairway. The nickname was “Pele,” after the legendary Brazilian football player.
Bryan Marsal, a longtime Winged Foot member and chair of the 2020 Men’s U.S. Open, recalled an incident to Golf.com: “We go to the first tee and he couldn’t have been nicer. But then he said, ‘You see those two guys? They cheat. See me? I cheat. And I expect you to cheat because we’re going to beat those two guys today.’”
The stark contrast between the tragic announcement of a soldier’s death and the President’s immediate, self-focused boasting about his golf skills has drawn immediate criticism regarding the appropriateness and timing of his remarks.
The story originally appeared on [Link].
