“When they give you a putt, you pick it up and walk to the next hole and say, ‘Thank you very much.’”
That was President Trump using a golf analogy to explain why he planned to accept the gift of an airplane from Qatar to use as a new, more luxurious Air Force One.
A golfer can “give a putt” to an opponent when a ball is so close to a hole that sinking it is virtually assured. Rather than waste the time to putt the ball, you can just pick it up and head to the next hole. Outlets including The Wall Street Journal and CNN identified the vernacular for this courtesy: a gimme.
Even for serious golfers it might seem odd to equate the gift of a two-foot putt with a $400 million fully tricked-out Boeing 747 from a country that until recently was the headquarters of Hamas’s political leadership.
But before President Trump picks up his ball (or his plane) and moves on, it’s worth considering the word “gimme” and why, despite the imbalance between a short putt and a long plane, it may be the perfect word for the current presidency.
Gimme is an unofficial contraction of “give me,” whose appearance dates at least back to the early 1890s. As a verb, it’s long made appearances in song lyrics. The spiritual “Old Time Religion,” which morphed into “Give Me That Old Time Religion” was rendered in the 1940s as “Gimme That Old Time Religion,” according to records at the Library of Congress. In ABBA’s late-1970s song “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” the word is a lonely, late-night plea for companionship. “Gimme Shelter,” released in 1969 by the Rolling Stones, was a more desperate cry for respite from the global storm of the Vietnam War era. Drake rapped “Gimme a Hug” during his spat with the fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar.
Snarky social critics have labeled millennials who want it all handed to them on a platter this very second the Gimme Generation, fitting offspring of their baby boomer parents, who have been called the Me Generation.
But when President Trump was asked about the plane, he didn’t go for the verb form of the word, as in “gimme a break,” but rather alluded to the noun: a gimme. This has become shorthand for something simply achieved — an uncontested layup, a simple assignment from the boss, an exam question in ChatGPT’s sweet spot, a putt that need not be putted, and now, perhaps, a luxury presidential jet.
It’s not surprising that the golf usage was on the president’s mind since he owns 16 courses and plays almost weekly, mostly at his clubs. It’s also not surprising that he had gimme on his mind. In keeping with his conduct more generally, President Trump loudly touts his golfing victories while he is known to occasionally, well, play by his own rules. The official rules of golf were first written in Edinburgh in 1744 and have been revised and debated seemingly as much as the United States tax code. The practice of giving or “conceding” a putt has evolved into something of a golf loophole much like those loopholes that get carved into the tax code, which, coincidentally or not, the president is also proud to make the most of.
Gimmes are not allowed in top tournaments like the U.S. Open or the Masters where the player with the fewest total strokes wins. Conceding putts is allowed in “match play” where players who win the most holes win, no matter the overall strokes.
Golf is governed by a lot of fine-grained rules, all of which are tightly overseen by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the United States Golf Association, much as federal courts oversee laws. When playing with friends or business associates, which is mostly the way the president plays the game, all sorts of favor-trading can prevail. And, why not? It’s just a game with your buddies. It’s not called the Gentlemen’s Game for nothing.
“Gimme” is so versatile that it can be used as both a verb and a noun in one sentence, as in “Gimme a gimme.” You can imagine that less-than-lyrical sentence being uttered (or tweeted) by someone used to the transactional give and take of accepting and bestowing favors. Maybe that is why the president so instinctively knew not to look a gift jet in the underbelly and instead just “pick it up, walk to the next hole, and say ‘Thank you, very much.’”
To do otherwise, he said, would be “stupid.” After all, you could take the putt and miss completely. The president has gone enough rounds to know that if an offer is made, take it while the taking is good. Who knows what might happen on the next hole?
This is how the Gentleman’s Game is played on Trump’s back nine. Gifts are given, favors bestowed. The rules are whatever the guy who owns the club decides they are.
The post ‘Gimme’: A Word That Explains the President’s Worldview appeared first on New York Times.
