This is the parable of the president and the putt.
It was Monday morning in Washington and President Trump was in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, signing one more executive order before departing for his expedition to the Middle East. Over the weekend, news had broken about his plan to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One. Questions abounded.
This luxurious gift from the Qataris presented all sorts of concerns — ethical, legal, logistical, mechanical. There was also the fact that Mr. Trump had once described Qatar as a “funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Even some of his dearest supporters were concerned. “We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits,” Laura Loomer, a far-right activist whose advice the president has occasionally heeded, wrote on social media. “This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true.”
Mr. Trump was having none of it.
“They’re giving us a free jet,” he said. “I could say, ‘No, no, no, don’t give us, I want to pay you a billion, or $400 million,’ or whatever it is. Or, I could say, ‘Thank you very much.’”
He paused. Something had occurred to him. All this preciousness over the plane reminded him of something he had heard once and never forgotten. It was just a little thing, really, and he said it almost as an aside. But it told so much about Mr. Trump and the way he sees the world.
“There was an old golfer named Sam Snead,” he said. “Did you ever hear of him?”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Mehmet Oz, the chief of staff Susie Wiles and a smattering of other presidential aides in the room looked up at their boss, perhaps unsure where he was heading.
Old Sam Snead “had a motto,” Mr. Trump continued. “When they give you a putt, you say, ‘Thank you very much.’ You pick up your ball, and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say, ‘No, no, I insist on putting it.’ Then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them.”
“Remember that,” Mr. Trump said. Some of his aides nodded appreciatively at this most Trumpian pearl of wisdom that was being dispensed. “Sam Snead,” he repeated. “When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, ‘Thank you very much.’”
It was a bit of a stretch, comparing a gimme in golf to accepting a luxury jet from a foreign government. And there is doubt about whether Mr. Snead ever even uttered those words. “Sam never said any of that,” said Al Barkow, a prominent golf writer who wrote “Sam: The One and Only Snead.”
Still, as simplistic as the analogy was, it was a revealing insight into how Mr. Trump views not only the plane but all the other ethical concerns swirling around him.
To name but a few: His family has six pending deals with a majority Saudi-owned real estate firm; Qatar is backing another Trump project; and the United Arab Emirates is getting in on the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures. His two oldest sons are currently hopscotching the globe, striking deals that directly benefit their father. He is also now selling access to himself to top buyers of the digital coin his family is marketing. Even the first lady is pushing crypto these days.
Mr. Trump said on Monday that he’d be a “stupid person” to turn down the Qatari plane. It was an echo back to one of his earlier ethical snafus, when he was running against Hillary Clinton, who accused him of having not paid federal income tax for years. “That makes me smart,” was Mr. Trump’s answer back then.
In his view, all the world is a golf course, and only a fool would turn down a putt.
