Donald Trump and Arnold Palmer (Facebook)
How weird was Donald Trump's recent weekend on the campaign trail? It was so weird that journalists struggled to find words to describe it.
Emily Chang, in a joint report for NBC and Yahoo! News, describes how people who deal with words for a living found themselves grasping for words to report on the zaniness of Trump World. Under the headline "Arnold Palmer’s daughter calls Trump’s remarks about her father 'disrespectful'," Chang writes:
Arnold Palmer's daughter, Peg Palmer Wears, reacted to former President Donald Trump's vulgar comments about her late father, calling them "disrespectful," "inappropriate," and "unacceptable."
"Being at the airport, which is named for my dad, where he flew out of to go to work every day or every week, you know, to come there and talk about … hackneyed anecdotes from the locker room … seemed disrespectful and inappropriate to me," she told ABC News Monday afternoon.
Not only was Arnold Palmer a renowned American golfer with a popular beverage named in his honor, he also has a regional airport named after him in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Campaigning at that airport on Saturday evening, Trump kicked off the rally with a long-winded story about Palmer, who died in 2016, specifically referring to the golfer's genitals.
"When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, 'Oh my God. That's unbelievable,'" Trump joked.
Wears failed to find the humor in it. Chang writes:
According to Wears, Trump was "appropriating someone he admires to bolster his own image," and that "people deserve better."
"The people coming to these rallies deserve substance about plans Trump has as a candidate, if he could elucidate on some of the threats he's made to people," she continued. "I mean, these are important issues that should be discussed for people when they're getting ready to vote, and using my dad to cover over the important things just seems unacceptable to me."
Wears also confirmed to ABC News that she will be voting in the presidential election, though she did not disclose which candidate she plans to vote for.
An unaffiliated North Carolina voter, Wears plans to cast her ballot from one of the seven critical battleground states that could impact the election.
According to 538's polling averages, Trump is leading in North Carolina by 0.8 points.
In an article at The Independent, Ariana Baio reports this was not the first time Trump had shared the Arnold Palmer story in a public setting. Baio writes:
“There are countless stories attesting to Trump’s prurience, indulging in gossip and obsessing over others’ looks. In one of the most memorable, as he prepared for a trip to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for a rally in late 2020, Trump recounted for Oval Office guests the time he had seen hometown golf legend Arnold Palmer disrobed at the Latrobe Country Club, and the size of his genitalia.”
Trump retold the story to rallygoers over the weekend, claiming when Palmer showered with other golf pros “They came out of there they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable’.”
“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump added – an innuendo about Palmer’s genitalia.
The former president an avid golfer, has always expressed admiration for Palmer. He once called him, “a very good friend” and recalled playing golf with him.
Trump often praised Palmer in his social media posts on X, formerly Twitter. He wished Palmer a happy birthday in 2014 and paid tribute to him after he died in 2016.
Trump’s Saturday anecdote is the latest in a string of strange, rambling stories he’s shared with his supporters while on the campaign trail. In recent weeks, Trump has significantly ramped up his number of rallies – focusing on swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona.
In each city or town, Trump tries to relate to voters by sharing a story of his previous time there or bringing up a significant aspect of the area. For Latrobe, that was admiring Palmer.
But Palmer’s family did not find the remarks endearing. Peggy Palmer, the daughter of the late golfer, told The Independent she thought it was “an unfortunate way to remember my dad.”
“My father was very modest,” Peggy continued. “We’ve lost our sense of outrage in this country over just about everything, and I’m not sure that’s OK… There are other things about my dad that would be better to focus on.”
Trump's comment sparked so much nuttiness that a CNN host and a prominent Republican got into an argument over it. Under he headline "CNN host gets into awkward argument with top Republican about Trump’s bizarre Arnold Palmer comment," The Independent's Greg Evans writes:
CNN anchor Jake Tapper got into an awkward argument with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson about the odd comments that Donald Trump made about former professional golfer Arnold Palmer during a rally on Saturday.
With just days to go before the election on 5 November, Trump used a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Palmer’s birthplace, to speak for 12 minutes about Palmer’s manhood.
“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said. “He took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”
“I had to tell you the shower part because it’s true,” he added.
Speaking to Johnson after the rally, Tapper questioned why Trump used a good chunk of his rally to talk about Palmer in such a manner, asking the Speaker of the House: “Is this really the closing message you want voters to hear from Donald Trump, stories about Arnold Palmer’s penis?”
Johnson tried to ignore the question and attempted to pivot to a debate about Kamala Harris, but Tapper refused to let the issue go.
“I’m sure that you think that a policy debate would be better than a personality debate, but if President Biden had gone on stage and spoke about the size of a pro golfer’s penis, I think you would be on this show right now saying you were shocked and appalled and you would suggest it was evidence of his cognitive decline,” Tapper propositioned Johnson, asking: “Why is he talking about Arnold Palmer’s penis in front of Pennsylvania voters?”
“Jake, you seem to like that line a lot,” retorted Johnson.
Tapper protested this, claiming that he didn’t like talking about Trump’s comments but that he had to because “Donald Trump is out there saying it.”
Johnson did eventually address Trump’s comments about Palmer, saying: “ I get it. There are lines in a rally. When President Trump is at a rally, sometimes he’ll speak for two straight hours.”
Johnson then went on to attack Biden and Harris again and put forward why he believes Trump will win in November.
The 52-year-old concluded by saying: “He says things that are off the cuff. But I’m telling you, I’ve been in those events. I’ve been in those arenas, and people have a great time at those arenas.”
Social media users were quick to mock Trump for his Palmer anecdote.
“According to the most recent NYT/Siena poll, the top three issues for swing voters include: 1. Inflation 2. abortion 3. The size of Arnold Palmer’s schlong,” podcast host Dan Pfeiffer wrote on X.
“But don’t call them weird,” author Jennifer Taub posted, alluding to Kamala Harris’s moniker for the former president and his running mate, JD Vance.
