Commander in Cheat – A Book Review

In my experience, as a librarian, book reviewer, book publishing consultant, and back-of-the-book indexer over forty years, it’s quite to rare ever see a non-fiction book that delivers 100 percent on its title.

Commander in Cheat © 2019 by Rick Reilly, a noted sportswriter, who has been on ESPN, lives up to its grand title.

For example, on page 91-92 Reilly asserts “Despite all the people, protesters, and press, around, Trump still cheated…”—at an event at one of Trump’s own golf courses.

A photographer who was shooting Trump told the author about it: “And I see a Secret Service agent kick the ball out of the rough [where Trump’s drive had landed the ball] …and [the agent] kicked it into the short stuff.” 

Celebrities, caddies, and countless others attest to the extreme degree to which Trump cheats both on and off the golf course. 

They also comment on Trump’s complete lack of etiquette on the golf course. 

When golfing with a group, Trump always pushes in front and tees off first in at every hole.

Trump doesn’t walk a course, even when taking a cart is against his own club’s rules.

Trump’s cart goes twice as fast as anyone else’s, so he beats them to his ball and moves it, drops an extra ball from his pocket closer to the green, or simply picks up the ball and doesn’t bother to putt it into the hole, i.e. takes a “mulligan”. 

Trump even drives his cart up onto the greens dumps his clubs there…ripping up and smashing down the grass for those who follow onto his greens.

Worse yet, Donald Trump demands that his caddies and his partners in golf also cheat. And of course, he never pays up when losing a bet on a game. Celebrities often forgive this, but his workers most certainly do not!

All of this prompts the author in the last chapter of his book to deliver a passionate, not-to-be-missed speech about what golf means to him and why he wrote this book.

Who is this book for? 

• Anyone who has ever asked themselves or others, “Why did Trump do that?”
• Celebrity watchers who read People, AARP, Star & Inquirer and/or watch TV celebrity shows
• Anyone who has ever been conned or cheated, or knows someone who has
• Anyone who loves golf and wants to know more about the golf world
• Anyone who loves and plays any other sport(s) besides golf
• Anyone interested in U.S. and international politics, 
• Anyone interested in countries where Trump does business (there are a lot!)
• Anyone who plans to vote in the next Presidential election in 2020
• Any author writing a book who wants to learn how to build tension in their own storyline
• Anyone who feels the urge to understand Narcissistic Personality Disorder in depth

Whatever category(ies) you fall into above, I promise you this book will answer every question you’ve ever had about how Donald Trump conducts his businesses, his private life, and his Presidency—except perhaps the question of who has the pee pee tapes.

Rick Reilly even manages to make Narcissistic Personality Disorder more understandable than one-hundred psychologists ever could.

Especially since the fifth edition of the psychologists’ DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) doesn’t even classify its ten Personality Disorders as being mental disorders.

Commander in Cheat, as its title suggests, is also concise and to the point, just like Reilly’s writing. This book will make you laugh and cry and get very angry and feel, if you can, compassion for The Donald. 

Or if you are one of the “1 out of every 25 Americans” that Martha Stout, Harvard psychologist, in her book, The Sociopath Next Door (2005), believes have an Antisocial Personality Disorder…this book, Commander in Cheat, will surely make you smile when it reveals to you lots of new ways to to put one over on other people. 

Believe me, if you, like President Trump, do not read books (or sometimes even your own business contracts…) make an exception for Commander in Cheat! I guarantee…you won’t be sorry.