Trump and Having to Win

Rick Reilly has written a book on how much Trump cheats at golf, and what it says about him as a person. Here’s an excerpt:

He cheats. He lies. He kicks. And not just his ball—yours, too. He props up a 2.8 handicap that’s faker than WrestleMania 35. He wins tournaments he never even played in. He wins tournaments that weren’t even held.

He does all of this because he has to win. A loss is to Donald Trump what a shower is to the Wicked Witch of the West. He has to win no matter how much cheating, lying, and pencil erasing it takes. He has to win whether you’ve caught him or not. Maybe it was his father beating into his kid brain, Win, win, win. Be a winner, over and over.

I believe this idea that Trump has to win, has to be a winner, is misleading. The point is literally the opposite.

Look, Michael Jordan was famously competitive – he had to win. But how he did that was by killing himself practicing and bugging you to keep playing him until he actually won. Trump does none of this – he either blatantly cheats so it’s impossible for any other outcome or worse, he simply SAYS he won even though no such thing occurred. That’s not someone who “has to win”, that’s just someone who has to SAY he won. This is misleading, and by repeating such a thing actually makes Trump seem like he is a winner, when he’s clearly not.