In the wake of Tiger Woods' major golf victory at the Masters over the weekend, President Trump on Monday announced he would be awarding the formerly disgraced athlete the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"Spoke to @TigerWoods to congratulate him on the great victory he had in yesterday’s @TheMasters, & to inform him that because of his incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE, I will be presenting him with the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!" the president tweeted.
Spoke to @TigerWoods to congratulate him on the great victory he had in yesterday’s @TheMasters, & to inform him that because of his incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE, I will be presenting him with the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the U.S.
Trump had previously tweeted Sunday about Woods' success, saying: "Congratulations to @TigerWoods., a truly Great Champion! Love people who are great under pressure. What a fantastic life comeback for a really great guy!"
Love people who are great under pressure. What a fantastic life comeback for a really great guy! https://t.co/41MtJtYEjq
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2019
Woods has actually golfed with Trump before, commenting:
"He’s the President of the United States."
"You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office."
Trump is not the only Palm Beach, Florida, resident to marvel at Woods' comeback story.
Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh recalled on his national broadcast Monday how the golfer went from being a national hero to the pit of despair after the adulterous affairs of Woods were made public.
"Tiger Woods was the biggest joke in this country. He had reached the pinnacle that few ever reach in any endeavor, and in one Thanksgiving weekend, it all came crushing down," Limbaugh explained. "And he lost not everything, but he lost a significant amount of things that were of dire consequence and importance to him, including his wife and for a time he was worried about losing his kids."
"Then he has all of these injuries and all these back surgeries. And then there’s that video where he’s pulled off the side of the road and can’t walk a straight line because his doctors had him on some kind of drug cocktail to deal with the pain and everything else from all of these back surgeries that he’s had in his never-ending quest to get back to being able to play professional tournament golf."
"You wonder what it must feel like to have the entire country write you off as a loser, write you off as a joke, laugh at you, point at you, smirk at you every time they see you, put you down, say, 'Yeah, I always knew he was a phony. I always knew he was a fraud. Nobody’s that good. Nobody’s that popular. I always knew it.' Because people revel in the failures of others. Human nature. People feel better about themselves when other people tank."
Limbaugh praised Woods for fighting through his struggle and doing "whatever it is that he had to do."
"It involved spending years, over a decade building back. All of those debilitating and themselves humiliating and embarrassing, surgeries and the aftermath, all of it public. Every bit of it public. And here’s Tiger Woods eventually defying all of that," he said.
"Tiger Woods shows that not only can you come back, but that you can regain the respect and the love and the adulation."
"So the next time you get worried about what people think of you, and it will happen maybe in 10 minutes from now, 20 minutes or whatever, just remember: Tiger Woods."
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