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Donald Trump shared a 12-minute anecdote about golfer Arnold Palmer at a Pennsylvania rally, prompting derision on social media after he made an off-color comment.
Trump was speaking in Latrobe, Palmer’s birthplace, on Saturday evening when the 12-minute tangent began. The former president began by praising Palmer’s career and describing his previous conversations with him. “There were a few golfers that you could say may be slightly better, a few, not many,” he said. “But there was nobody that had his magic.”
But the former president’s anecdote, which is just the latest in a series of increasingly bizarre rally claims, quickly devolved as he discussed some intimate details about the golfing icon.
“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said. “He took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”
“I had to tell you the shower part because it’s true,” he added.
Social media users were quick to mock the former president for the anecdote.
“According to the most recent NYT/Siena poll, the top three issues for swing voters include: 1. Inflation 2. abortion 3. The size of Arnold Palmer’s schlong,” podcast host Dan Pfeiffer wrote on X.
“But don’t call them weird,” author Jennifer Taub posted, alluding to Kamala Harris’s moniker for the former president and his running mate, JD Vance.
Others commented on the crude nature of the comment.
“Real dinner table stuff,” one X user said.
“Clicked ‘Arnold Palmer’ to see if something was trending about the tea,” another user wrote. “It was the furthest thing from tea.”
Palmer was born in Latrobe in 1929. Nicknamed “The King,” Palmer is one of the most iconic golf players in US history. Palmer died in 2016 at 87 years old in Pittsburgh.
Trump is leading Harris by just one point in Pennsylvania, the latest Emerson College poll reveals. As Trump discussed Palmer in the key swing state, Harris was campaigning with Usher in Atlanta. The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.