Tiger Woods Plus Donald Trump: A Tragedy Made in the USA
April 3, 2026
Woods and Trump’s famous friendship is based on a shared talent for accumulation, emptiness and the worship of power. It’s as American as apple pie.
President Donald Trump kisses Tiger Woods after presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on May 6, 2019.
(Alex Edelman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
For anyone who believes that Donald Trump, in his infinite narcissism, has no empathy for anyone but himself, think again. He may project nothing but apathy or joy at the pain he has inflicted on countless families across the world, including his own parasitized and damaged offspring; he can threaten war crimes in a nationally televised speech; he could promise to use federal troops to “win” in Los Angeles during the 2026 World Cup; but he really seems to like golf legend Tiger Woods.
The feeling is mutual. After Woods nearly died this week — driving his car with opioids in his pocket — his first call was to Trump’s hotline. According to police body camera footage, Woods said he made that call before the officer even approached his car.
What is this connection about? What does this openly ethnonationalist president – who offered preferential refugee admissions to white South Africans while engaging in unprecedented violence against black and brown immigrants – have to do with Woods? Woods, a pioneering athlete who joined countless country clubs, described himself as Cablinasian – Caucasian, Black and Asian. That is, until he got a call from Nike telling him he was just black.
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After that, you never heard the word “Cablinasian” again. Soon, the shoe giant released an ad based on the iconic solidarity slogan, “I’m Spartacus,” in which a diverse group of kids defiantly said, “I’m Tiger Woods!” It was a rebellion without a cause, a rebellion for market share, Jackie Robinson if Robinson was more interested in brand recognition than civil rights. In fact, Woods and Trump may have something in common: The meaningless nature of branding for the sake of accumulation is not far removed from accumulation for the sake of accumulation. Maybe that’s what brought them together.
Certainly, their attraction is linked to Trump’s obsession with golf. Tiger racing is the historic pinnacle of a sport that appears to command Trump’s attention more than the war he illegally started that has displaced millions in Iran and Lebanon. Or maybe it’s because Woods always comes across as rightly – and humiliatingly – sycophantic in Trump’s presence. He is not challenging Trump. He loves it and Trump basks in its brilliance.
It could also be that Woods is dating Don Jr.’s ex-wife, Vanessa, whom Trump has always seemed to love more than his son. Apparently, Woods’ presence in his life causes Don Jr. endless strain. Following the drunk driving arrest, anonymous sources close to Don Jr. told the press: “[Don. Jr.] is furious. They are his children. Complete stop…. Everyone gave Tiger the benefit of the doubt. But Don always saw the warning signs. Always.” Given Don Jr.’s erratic public behavior, his concerns seem more like an effort to shame Dad’s favorite than a protective instinct for the next generation of damaged assets.
But what is more likely is that, as with all of Trump’s relationships, this relationship is also largely transactional. As announced with great fanfare in 2014, Tiger Woods was set to design the Trump World Golf Club in the human rights hellhole of Dubai. Under Trump’s orders, Woods is also expected to redesign Washington, D.C.’s public Langston Golf Course, which opened in 1939 as the city’s first course built specifically for Black Americans. There are widespread fears that after Woods’ transformation, these public courses will become private, excluding people who cannot afford them and erasing the history of black golfers who have used the course for generations. The irony will choke you if you think about it too hard.
But whatever the reason for their mutual affection, Trump took time from his disastrous war and the suffocation of Cuba to express his empathy for Woods even before the very sad, very cold photo of the golfer reached the press. Upon hearing the news, Trump stopped threatening universally recognized war crimes, rushed to the nearest telephone and called his old friends on the phone. New York Post to defend Woods. He said Woods is “living a life of pain” because of old injuries, but is “doing very well.” Trump also noted that Woods is “under enormous physical strain from his various illnesses, you know, back and leg.”
NOW he cares about people who live in pain. But the amputees of Gaza? Not so much.
Tiger Woods is an American tragedy. It was the golf prodigy who was The Mike Douglas Showputting for adults at 2 years old. He was the 15-time Grand Slam winner who fundamentally changed the golf audience, taking it to unprecedented levels. He was the teenager whose future, according to his late father, Earl, would be comparable to Gandhi’s.
Trump offers no such pressure to be Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Muhammad Ali. Just a smiling mark dating the mother of his grandchildren. And now Woods has experienced the kind of fall from grace that reflects our current culture: plagued by performance enhancers, opioids, depression and decline.
Perhaps this is what really started this friendship: the death of hope. Trump is the king of a country where hope dies. Woods became the mascot of a nation’s crumbling greatness. An American tragedy? This is the American reality.
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