Trump says he would cheat at golf if there weren’t so many Secret Service agents watching him play

President Donald Trump said the Secret Service agents assigned to protect him make it impossible for him to cheat at golf.

The Republican president made the remark Saturday during an address at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, before attending the Irish Open, a professional golf tournament.

“I was with the head of the biggest company in the world and we’re playing golf and we have, you know, like all these things going around and we had hundreds of Secret Service all over the course,” Trump told business leaders gathered at the ambassador’s residence.

“In fact, they said, ‘Does Trump cheat?’ I can’t cheat,” he said. “You have 250 Secret Service agents running down.”

“It’s not that I wouldn’t cheat,” the 80-year-old president said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “But you can’t move the ball. I don’t know if they play or not but they know you’re not supposed to be moving the ball around, okay?”

Trump, an avid golfer, has long faced accusations that he bends the rules on the course.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly devoted a 2019 book to the subject titled Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.

“Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf,” Reilly wrote in the book. “He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pele.’”

Lindsey Graham, Trump’s longtime ally and the late South Carolina senator, also reportedly suggested that Trump did not always follow the rules.

“Some people say you may outdrive him, but you’re not going to outdrive his caddy. It is what it is,” Graham said during a 2022 grand jury appearance in Georgia, according to testimony transcripts obtained by The New York Times.

Trump, for his part, has denied cheating at golf.

In 2016, after former boxer Oscar De La Hoya accused him of foul play, Trump replied: “Not only didn't I cheat, I didn't play with him…I have never played a round of golf with this guy.”

“He's absolutely lying,” Trump added. “Golf is an important thing and I felt I had to say something.”