Trump attends Presidents Cup final round, draws 'four more years' chants

The president spoke for about a minute at Medinah Country Club on Sunday, one day after attending the Texas-Tennessee SEC football game.

President Donald Trump made it two major sporting events in two days, appearing Sunday at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, for the final round of the Presidents Cup. The golf visit came a day after he attended Saturday afternoon's SEC football game between the Texas Longhorns and the Tennessee Volunteers.

Spectators at the course gave the president an enthusiastic greeting before play began. Standing at the first tee as the closing round got going, Trump turned toward the fans and raised a fist, and the gathering soon responded with chants of "four more years!" aimed in his direction.

No lengthy address had been planned for the day. Trump was not expected to speak at the tournament, but a request for brief remarks came his way, and he accepted it, keeping his words to roughly a minute in front of the gallery before the final round began.

Brevity appeared to be the point. "These people want to see golf. They don't want to hear speeches," Trump said ahead of the round, in comments reported by the Chicago Tribune. He then offered a single observation about the nation: "I'll only say this: our country is doing great, better than ever before."

The golf itself received a brief mention as well. Trump told the audience that Sunday's play would include some of the top players in the world, and he forecast what he described as "a very interesting day of golf" at the course outside Chicago.

The president also weighed in on how his visit would be portrayed. He claimed in his remarks that "the fake news media" would report a negative reaction from the crowd, and the spectators answered by voicing their support, with the "four more years" chant ringing out once he finished his short set of remarks.

The moment reached audiences beyond the course as well. An image from the first tee credited to Jerod Ringwald-Imagn Images showed Trump with his fist raised during the final round, and video posted by Illinois Review captured the chant along with the president's reaction.

The Presidents Cup visit fits into a larger pattern of Trump's second term. The president has attended a string of prominent sporting events across the country since taking office again, and this weekend he combined a college football stop on Saturday with a golf tournament appearance on Sunday in Illinois.

There was also a political dimension to the chant at Medinah. Trump has floated the possibility of a third presidential run on many occasions, generally in jest, but the Constitution rules the idea out: the 22nd Amendment holds that an individual cannot be elected to the presidency more than two times. That restriction did nothing to silence the supporters on Sunday.