President Donald Trump said Tiger Woods suffers "great pain" from back issues and urged him to get a driver, reacting to the golfer's reckless driving plea deal.
Page A8From§Eachthe early bird edition — 2 September 2026
Trump praises Tiger Woods' 'very fair' DUI plea, recommends a driver.
As it ran on the front
In March, Tiger Woods rolled his SUV in Florida. Before he called a lawyer, before he called a doctor, he called the President of the United States. That's the first beat, and it's the only one that matters, because everything downstream of it is just the President returning the favor in public, on the record, for five months straight.
By September, Woods has a plea deal: no contest, DUI charges reduced, five-year license suspension. That's the legal substance — the part a normal official reaction addresses, if there is one. Trump's reaction was not that. Trump's reaction was to say Woods suffers "great pain" from his back, to call the deal "very fair," and to offer the one piece of advice that actually fits a five-year suspension: hire a driver. Not "he should follow the terms of his plea." Not "DUI is dangerous." Driving tips. From the President. To a man who just lost the right to drive.…
…(cont) Then Wednesday, Trump showed up in person, at the Florida courthouse, with Vanessa Trump beside him, while Woods accepted the deal. Not a statement issued through a press office. A body in the room. The same body that shows up when the loyalty test is close and the paper trail needs a witness who'll say afterward that it was all very human, very difficult, very fair.
Here's the part that should sit with you: nobody is disputing the facts. Woods crashed a car under the influence of prescription drugs, according to the arrest. He lost his license for half a decade. Those are real consequences that a judge signed off on. What didn't happen is a President treating that as a fact that requires a comment about accountability instead of a phone call, a car ride, and a character reference. The charge got reduced. The suspension is real. And the review of the outcome came from the guy Woods dialed the day of the crash.
This is the whole trick of the loyalty economy: it doesn't need to break any law to make the law feel optional. Nobody had to fix the plea. They just had to make sure that when it landed, the only person quoted on its fairness was a friend who was already in the room. Try getting a character reference from the President the next time your license gets suspended. The number you need isn't in the phone book. It's just the one Tiger Woods already had.
“See, this is the whole racket in one afternoon — the President doesn't fix your DUI, he just shows up and calls it "very fair" so the cameras catch a friend instead of a verdict. Your license gets suspended, you get a hearing; his buddy's license gets suspended, he gets a ride to the courthouse and a driving tip from the leader of the free world. That's not sympathy, that's a receipt for who's got the number and who's got a public defender.”
“Look, the President is allowed to have opinions about golf, okay? Is it a crime now to tell a friend to hire a driver? That's just good advice, that's — actually don't put that next to the word "advice," that sounds like I'm saying he needed advice. He's a private citizen going through a hard time. With the President. At the courthouse. Anyway the deal was fair, everyone says so, well, one person says so, and he happens to be — okay I need a minute.”
The receipts
President Donald Trump voiced support for Tiger Woods on Wednesday after the golf legend had his driver’s license suspended. The five-year suspension was part of a no-contest plea deal Woods struck with prosecutors concerning a DUI-involved crash earlier this year. Woods’s charges were reduced as part of the agreement.
WASHINGTON — President Trump praised the no-jail plea deal for Tiger Woods — saying it was a “very fair” outcome after the golfer allegedly drove under the influence of prescription drugs. Woods was arrested in March — placing a call directly to Trump after crashing his SUV in Florida — and was found by police...
Trump accompanied Woods to a Florida courthouse Wednesday, where the golf legend accepted a last-minute plea deal stemming from his DUI arrest earlier this year.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.