While Myrtle Beach continues to burn, what has Trump been doing? Golfing 

While most presidents have historically tackled crises from the Situation Room, Donald Trump seems to prefer the 18th green. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and Trump? Well, he golfs while America smolders.

The man is dedicated, to say the least. Forget the fact that he’s been a no-show for some of the most critical disasters during his time in office — what’s more important is that he’s claimed to have won 18 golf championships. For context, that’s the same number of major championships won by golf greats like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — except, you know, their victories were real.

As Trump strolls leisurely from tee to tee beneath the sunny skies of Palm Beach, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is quite literally engulfed in flames. Thousands of residents have been forced to abandon their homes. A statewide ban on outdoor burning has been issued to prevent the situation from worsening, and violators face criminal prosecution. But even with these measures, the fire isn’t slowing down. 

South Carolina has been experiencing unusually dry weather, creating parched vegetation that acts as kindling for wildfires. Winds exacerbate the problem by spreading the flames faster, making it very hard for firefighters to contain the blaze. As of now, over 175 wildfires are being fought across the state, spanning 4,200 acres. Counties like Horry, Spartanburg, and Pickens are among the hardest hit. To their credit, officials report that no injuries have been recorded yet. Still, the situation is dire. 

The president’s actions are emblematic of a larger failure to prioritize climate resilience in this country. Wildfires aren’t going away. In fact, they’re getting worse and more frequent, thanks to rising temperatures and prolonged droughts. Yet, federal resources continue to be outright ignored. Trump’s own administration has recently pumped the brakes on essential wildfire mitigation funding — funding, mind you, that was established under his predecessor’s watch precisely to prevent disasters like these. 

We saw this just a month ago, when Los Angeles suffered catastrophic wildfires, racking up projected losses in excess of $35 billion. Instead of ramping up firefighting capacity after such a devastating event, the Trump administration put the Forest Service under a department-wide hiring freeze. Of course, when Hurricane Helene ravaged Georgia, Trump was once again nowhere near the crisis. Instead, he and Marjorie Taylor Greene were busy attending a college football game. Beyond today’s crisis, Trump’s golfing obsession is an expensive habit. Forbes estimated his golfing trips during his presidency cost taxpayers around $100 million.

Years from now, when historians sift through the chaos that was the Trump era, they’ll have a hard time deciding what sums it up best: the draft-dodger grinning at soldiers’ graves, the commander-in-chief using pandemic as an opportunity to hawk experimental cures, or the billionaire golfer leisurely teeing off while cities burn. 

Maybe they’ll wonder how a nation allowed itself to be led by someone so utterly disconnected from basic human empathy. But when they get to the part where taxpayers footed the bill for his endless rounds of golf — while he actively dismantled the Department of Education and other U.S. institutions in the name of cutting “government waste”— they might not even laugh.