Donald Trump loves golf “more than he loves money,” according to Jack Nicklaus, one of the greats of the game.
He plays at least a couple of times a week and owns 16 courses, from Florida to Aberdeen.
The fairways are where he, supposedly, escapes the stresses of the campaign trail.
He deserved an expectation of safety at Trump International in West Palm Beach, although it is one of the largest and most exposed places a former president could visit, presenting a huge challenge for his security detail.
It is not a political arena, but what happened between holes five and six on Sunday afternoon is now very much a part of the narrative of the 2024 election.
Just 64 days after surviving an assassination attempt, Trump was targeted again.
Now just seven weeks out from election day, the question of how another security breach might affect him in the polls is an urgent one.
Within a few hours of shots ringing out at the course, round-robin messages were sent to his supporters with a link to donate.
Advertisement
“I am safe and well,” the first one read. Then: “My resolve is stronger after another attempt on my life!”
His campaign team are alive to the political opportunity this event presents, particularly with the polls so tight between him and Kamala Harris.
After Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, the image of him with his fist raised and ear bloodied became part of the framing of him as a living martyr, a strongman in contrast to the ailing Joe Biden.
In the week after he soared ahead of President Biden in all seven key swing states and some thought that searing image of defiance had won him the election.
But it is a very different race now.
Kamala Harris is his opponent and has closed the gap on him in the polls, even nudging ahead in some of those crucial states.
The attempt on his life in July is not often spoken about – it wasn’t a feature of their head-to-head debate last week– and does not feel like a significant factor in the race.
Historic precedent also cautions against the idea that an assassination attempt equals a lasting boost.
Another former president, Gerald Ford, was targeted by two would-be assassins in the space of just over two weeks in 1975.
He became slightly more popular after, like Trump, declaring he would not shy away from public appearances. But his approval rating fell below the pre-assassination attempt level and he lost his reelection campaign the following year.
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
More on Barack Obama
Related Topics:
Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obamaat Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pairsat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.
Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.
Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.
Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.
Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.
Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.