Donald Trump likens his natural talent to Babe Ruth, Jack Nicklaus


Nobody is as sure of Donald Trump as he is of himself, an observation that writer Jon Meacham features heavily in the newest Time cover story. But even as the article probes if Trump's confidence is enough to outweigh his lack of experience, Trump blows through any question of being able to realistically accomplish his goals by claiming presidency comes as naturally to him as baseball to Babe Ruth or golf to Jack Nicklaus:
Why does he think he is uniquely able to do what others could not? "Why is it? Because — I don't know. It's just different. It's like, why is it that Jack Nicklaus won so many golf tournaments? Right? Why is it that Babe Ruth could hit more home runs than all the teams in the American League? Right? They said to him, 'Babe, how do you hit the long ball?' And he said, 'I don't know, man, I just swing at it.' Which is sort of cool." Warming to the topic of himself as a natural political athlete, he mentions Lydia Ko, the brilliant young golfer. "On the Golf Channel, they said to her, 'When you bring the club up, how do you bring it down? What's your thought?' She said, 'I don't know. I don't really have a thought.' It's just something special." [Time]
Trump is so confident in his way of doing things that he even thinks the Civil War could have been solved "without the bloodshed" — the North and South just needed a good dealmaker, by his estimate. Trump once canceled a golf tournament to watch Ken Burn's Civil War documentary, so he would know — read about that, and more, in Time.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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