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During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, President Donald Trump discussed the shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake was shot last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while trying to get into his car. Police shot him in the back seven times while he tried to sit in his car and presumably drive away.
During the Fox News interview, Donald Trump likened this to someone who “chokes” under pressure, much like missing a 3-foot putt during golf.
This statement quickly drew condemnation on social media. Many noted that the president seemed to be stating that shooting black people is like a sport for police. Others noted that Trump’s use of a golf metaphor in reference to police brutality was a fitting encapsulation of his entire presidency.
Some suggested that Trump was more comfortable with his golf game than a password manager, referencing his love of Twitter.
During his interview with Ingraham, Trump claimed that police are “under siege” in the US. He defended them in the face of civil unrest calling for the defunding of police departments and an end to police brutality. Trump, a politician well-known for his love of golf and disdain for protesters, is a common sight on Fox News.
“They can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do, and one bad apple – or a choker, you know, a choker, they choke – shooting the guy in the back many times,” Trump told the reporter during the show.
“I mean, couldn’t you have done something different? Couldn’t you have wrestled him?” Trump asked, dismissing the common calls for non-lethal takedowns and gentler policing. “You know, I mean, in the meantime he might have been going for a weapon and, you know, there’s a whole big thing there.”
Then, Trump made the statement that, like in golf, people choke. Ingraham tried to bail him out, quickly saying, “You’re not comparing it to golf, because that’s what the media would say,” somehow forgetting she herself is a member of the media.
Trump backpedaled, saying that he was simply explaining how a police officer, faced with a potentially deadly situation, could make a snap decision that results in someone dying.
However, critics of police shootings have argued for years that this framing is too generous. Police are trained in how to operate under pressure. Citizens, meanwhile, have no training, but are expected to act in a perfect manner around police officers, under the threat of extrajudicial executions.
Punctuating the bizarre exchange, Robert Maguire tweeted, “I’ll never forget my worst round of golf. I was under a lot of pressure, and on the 15th hole, on what should have been an easy putt for birdie, I choked and shot someone seven times in the back.”
