PGA Tour taps Donald Trump to reprise honorary chairman role for Presidents Cup, White House confirms

Trump has held this honorary chairman title before, back in his first term, and nobody blinked. Presidents, sitting and former, have done ceremonial duty for these team events for years because golf and the White House have always been tangled up together. So the fact that the PGA Tour just handed him the role again for Medinah in 2026 shouldn't be a controversy. It's a photo-op title, not a policy lever.

But watch how this gets covered over the next few days. Somewhere a columnist is already drafting the piece about how outrageous it is that a golf organization would associate with this president, as if the job description involves anything more than showing up, shaking hands, and hitting a ceremonial tee shot. The Presidents Cup has never been a partisan event. George W. Bush did it. It's supposed to be beneath politics, which is exactly why the freakout, if it comes, will be so revealing.

What's actually interesting here is what it says about normalization on the Tour's own terms. The PGA has been navigating its own mess with LIV Golf and Saudi money for years, and yet here they are extending an olive branch to Trump like it's the most natural thing in the world. Maybe that's because it is. A former and sitting president lending his name to an American sporting institution used to be considered a nice gesture, not a scandal.

Golf doesn't need to be a battlefield. If Trump wants to stand on a tee box in 2026 and clap for Team USA, let him. There are actual fights worth having in this country. This isn't one of them.