Donald Trump angrily has security escort golfers off his golf course before New Years Eve
If you’re looking for any sign of hope from “president-elect” Donald Trump that he might be willing to act reasonably in 2017, you’re out of luck today. First came his “Happy New Year” tweet which turned out to be an angry screed about defeating his “enemies.” And now comes word that Trump personally booted an author off his golf course.
The story comes from Harry Hurt III, the author of a rather unflattering Trump biography from decades ago, titled Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump. Hunt and his friend David Koch (incidentally one of the billionaire Koch Brothers who have largely funded the Republican Party in recent years) tried to play on Trump’s golf course on the day before New Years Eve. Hurt tried to be cordial to Trump, but let’s just say it didn’t go well. Here’s the story as Hunt tells it on his Facebook page, in the third person:
Donald Trump personally booted the author of an unflattering biography off Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Friday. Harry Hurt III, who penned the 1993 biography, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, had come to play with billionaire industrialist David. H. Koch, a Trump club member, and two other golfers. Hurt, who has a scratch handicap and plays in colorful knickers, walked over to Trump on the practice range prior to his group’s assigned tee time, only to suffer a tongue lashing from the president-elect. “I said, ‘Congratulations, sir,’ and shook his hand,” Hurt recalls. “Trump said, ‘You were rough on me, Harry. Really rough. That shit you wrote.’”
Hurt says he looked Trump in the eye, and said, “It’s all true,” to which Trump rejoined, “Not in the way you wrote it.” Among the juicy tidbits in Hurt’s tome was Ivana Trump’s allegation in a sworn deposition that Trump had “raped” her during their divorce battle. Trump told Hurt it was “inappropriate” for him to play at the club, and had his security detail escort Hurt, Koch, and their playing partners to the parking lot. “David [Koch] was appalled,” says Hurt. “He branded Trump ‘petty’ and vulgar.’ We played Emerald Dunes instead, which is a much, much better golf course than Trump International.”
And so there you have it. The “president-elect” of the United States is angrily having security escort people off his golf course during the holidays, just to settle a decades old personal score. And this is the guy who’s just a few weeks from inhering the nuclear launch codes and the unilateral power to use them. Happy New Year, if there ends up being one.
