Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey worked with co-authors Isaac Arnsdorf and Tyler Pager to gather information about President Donald Trump from his 2024 campaign for their book. Among the things they found was an admission from Trump that the Secret Service makes it more difficult for him to cheat a golf.
Over the weekend, videos captured Trump's two caddies walking ahead of Trump's golf cart before one caddy appears to drop a ball on the course. Trump then hops out of the golf cart and walks to the ball as if it were there the whole time. The person Trump appeared to be playing with was following in his cart and walked over to the ball with Trump.
According to Dawsey, the team captured audio of Trump complaining that the Secret Service is in the trees and bushes all over his golf course as security — and measure shown to be necessary when a man was accused of shooting at Trump through a fence in Sept. 2024 while he was playing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
According to Trump, the agents being in the trees at his courses "made it harder to move the ball when he had a bad lie," wrote Dawsy on X.
“I hit a ball down the fairway, it's in a little rough, and there's a guy standing behind a tree, 'Good morning, sir.' And I got a ball with a horrible lie. I'd go like this. Nobody would know the difference. I can't because, he said, they're all looking down at me horrible. It's a horrible situation to be in," Trump said of his security during his games.
The book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," was released on July 8, 2025.
Trump's latest golf controversy happened while he was at one of his golf courses in Scotland.