Trump Bedminster Loses 2022 PGA Championship

So. Much. Winning.

Relative to the events of last week, this following is a relatively small thing, but it is as at least an example of consequences for bad behavior. ABC News reports: In blow to Trump, golf’s PGA strips major championship from Trump-owned course.

While the embattled president has been hunkered down to try and preserve his political career, the PGA of America, the proprietors of one of golf’s four major championship tournaments, announced that it plans to move its 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

“The PGA of America Board of Directors voted tonight to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster,” said Jim Richerson, PGA of America president, in a statement.

Holding the tournament at Trump Bedminster, Richerson said, would be “detrimental” to the PGA of America’s brand and put the organization’s ability to function “at risk.”

The Trump Organization, of course, cited a contract and I am sure they will sue.

Regardless, this is at least one more bit of actual consequence for Trump. His brand was always going to be tarnished by his less-than-stellar presidency, but his behavior over the last week, and specifically his encouragement of a crowd that stormed the Capitol, has now moved him from the category of unpopular to infamous.

Businesses could tolerate unpopular as long as he was unpopular with people who weren’t their customers. Trump has now tarnished himself in ways that make that less likely. That the PGA would not want to associate with him at this point is not surprising.

Trump’s presidency is ending like so many of his previous undertakings–in utter failure.

Just consider the last week or so.

-He was recorded trying to bully Georgia officials to commit electoral fraud.

-He encouraged insurrectionists on Wednesday. (Which he did not try to stop until they had been at it for two hours, and even then his attempt was tame).

-He apparently has utterly fractured his relationship with his Vice President. (It is reasonable to assert he sicced that mob on Pence, which is stunning).

-Two cabinet secretaries (and other officials) have resigned in protest.

-There was serious discussion of invoking the 25th Amendment.

-He was kicked off of his precious Twitter, along with a host of other social media platforms.

-He is likely to be impeached for a second time.

So. Much. Winning.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Jim Brown 32 says:

    He should lose his “front butt” too. The only thing he’s tough on is a 20 piece Chicken McNugget.

    3
  2. An Interested Party says:

    Yet another example of how he would have been much better off if he had actually lost in 2016…of course, it goes without saying that the country and the world would also have been better off…

    5
  3. CSK says:

    @An Interested Party:
    And of course he never expected to win in 2016. It was all a marketing ploy.

    Then when he saw how “easy” being president was–lie in bed all day eating hamberders and watching tv–he decided he wanted to keep the job.

    5
  4. MarkedMan says:

    Two cabinet secretaries (and other officials) have resigned in protest so as not to have to go on record re: the 25th amendment

    Fixed that for ya

    19
  5. Kevin McKenzie says:

    I have to wonder if this is the first time in 74 years there have been actual consequences for his behavior. And how much better off we, and he, would have been if extreme wealth hadn’t shielded him his entire life until now.

    10
  6. @MarkedMan: a not unfair fix.

    3
  7. @Steven L. Taylor: I am glad they resigned because it registers in the public in ways that other things don’t, but they are definitely rats abandoning the sinking ship.

    Of course, worse are the rats who stay behind.

    3
  8. PJ says:

    In tone-death golf news, there’s this:

    Opinion: Annika Sorenstam, Gary Player shame golf by accepting Medal of Freedom from Trump

    On Wednesday, President Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to never accept defeat, then watched as hundreds of them stormed the U.S. Capitol and rampaged through the halls of Congress, later saying, “We love you, you’re very special” to those involved in the deadly and appalling attack.

    On Thursday, Hall of Fame golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player stood with Trump at the White House to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They likely were the first outsiders to be with Trump at the White House since the reprehensible violence just 16 blocks away.

    It turns out that the ceremony for Sorenstam and Player was not open to the press. There were no photos immediately available. The event was basically held in secret.

    Actually, it was held in shame.

    4
  9. EddieInCA says:

    As an avid golfer with a handicap of 8.5, it brings me great joy that the PGA has done this. Furthermore, I guarantee the PGA has better lawyers than Donald Trump, and that they wrote that contract with language that allows them to move their tournament for any number of reasons. If the Trump Org sues, they’ll lose. Badly.

    Furthermore, and to a larger point, Trump is now, and has always been, too stupid to see a big picture. His brand is toxic. The MAGA fans, for the most part, can’t afford his properties or golf courses. The majority of “respectable Republicans” who can afford going to a Trump property, don’t and won’t because they don’t want to associate themselves in any way with his brand, even if they voted for him.

    It’s going to a be a slow death spiral for the Trump Org, which has gotten by for the last 30 years on debt and grift. The reported losses for his Scottish golf properties in 2020 was 90 million. The real number is probably twice that.

    He has $400M coming due soon. He’ll need to liquidate a whole lot of assets to cover that debt. Unlike most former Presidents, there will be no cushy 7 figure corporate board seats waiting for him. There will be no $200K speaking gigs. There will be no lucrative Netflix deal.

    Can’t happen to a nicer guy. I have popcorn ready.

    8
  10. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    My Fruede is over-schadened.

    6
  11. MarkedMan says:

    And of course, golf as whole got a side eye because of the whole Medal of Freedom thing. I understand Gary Player is from South Africa and, at least as a younger man, supported apartheid, so no surprise there. What’s Sorenstam’s deal? I understand she is a Trumper. Does she have a history of white nationalism too?

    1
  12. BugManDan says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: Not sure where I saw it, but someone noted that this is unfair to rats. Unlike Trump’s cabinet, the rats usually have had nothing to do with the ship going down.

    10
  13. @BugManDan: Good point.

    2
  14. Kathy says:

    @An Interested Party:

    Perhaps the other thing that will harm Trump long term is not having died of COVID-19 when he had the chance. That would have left him with a better legacy.

    Unlike Nixon, he’s too old and too stupid, not to mention too terrible a statesman, to rehabilitate himself even minimally. I mean, Nixon, bad as he was, had real accomplishments of consequence that outlasted his time in office, like opening relations with China and thus splitting the communist block.

    This doesn’t make him any less of a liar and a crook, but it does make him not just a liar and a crook. trump doesn’t have that and never will.

    6
  15. Not the IT Dept. says:

    Guaranteed he never for a moment thought there would be repercussions for his behavior. This has probably hit him out of a clear blue sky, which makes it all the more giggleicious for the rest of us.

    I wonder who he’s taking it out on that they didn’t warn him something like this would happen?

    3
  16. dazedandconfused says:

    @EddieInCA:

    I imagine the PGA has decided even if they lose the suit they are likely only going to be on the hook for costs incurred to date, and since the event is in 22 those can’t be huge. I can imagine the PGA deciding that even if it costs them a million it’s better than being associated with Trump.

    This is a decision others will make. The death-spiral may quite speedy.

    2
  17. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @EddieInCA:

    I have popcorn ready

    We have a couple of bottles of 98 Krug Clos d’Ambonnay ready to be chilled in anticipation of the moment when the oath (and Trump) is finished.

    4
  18. dazedandconfused says:
  19. OzarkHillbilly says:

    BWAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… gasp…. wheeze… Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha….

    4
  20. wr says:

    @PJ: I think Biden has to scrap the Presidential Medal of Freedom and replace it with something new. And he should do it explaining that once it’s been giving to treasonous scum like Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes — not to mention Rush Limbaugh — it simply has no meaning as an honor anymore.

    6
  21. CSK says:

    @wr:
    Bill Belichick has declined his Medal of Freedom from Trump.

    3
  22. Sleeping Dog says:

    @CSK:

    Allegedly, Belichick is “tight” with Trump (now maybe, was), but Bill has a well attuned sense of when to step back.

  23. Kathy says:

    @CSK:

    Yeah, I was very surprised, too.

    But, then, unlike trump, Belichick will still be around this year.

  24. Gustopher says:

    @EddieInCA:

    The reported losses for his Scottish golf properties in 2020 was 90 million. The real number is probably twice that.

    Or it might be only 9 million, with the extra zero being added to hide other assets.

  25. Gustopher says:

    @wr: I would not be opposed to Biden inviting all the living Presidential Medal of Freedom winners to a special ceremony, wearing their medals, to honor… someone universally beloved … and then taking away Devin Nunes’ medal. Just pluck it off his neck and give it to the dog or something.