2020 US election: Donald Trump’s done a phenomenal job, says Greg Norman

Greg Norman believes the President has a ‘good chance’ of winning the election.

Donald Trump and Greg Norman on the golf course.

Golfing legend Greg Norman has not written off Donald Trump. In fact he believes the US president has a “good chance” of winning the election because millions of “quiet Americans” will back the President and prove the polls wrong.

On the eve of today’s (Friday AEDT) final presidential debate, which offers Trump his best chance to mount a comeback against Joe Biden, the Florida-based Norman says Trump has kept his promises to voters. “(From) my business perspective, he’s done a phenomenal job,” Norman says in an exclusive interview with The Australian. “He has ­pretty much stuck to all his promises he made when he was elected.

“Very few people who are elected as president follow through on their promises.

“Ye,s he is bombastic; yes, he has a different style; but to see him actually commit to his word about what he wants to do is actually pretty impressive.

“And it’s having a domino effect on the American economy, it has a domino effect on people I employ,” says the 65 year old businessman and entrepreneur.

Norman believes Trump has had the right instincts during the coronavirus pandemic to encourage the US economy to reopen and says another economic shutdown in the US would be disastrous.

“To shut the economy down again would actually, I believe, put this country in an irretrievable reverse direction from an economic standpoint. It would absolutely devastate this country as it would with any other major Western world country,” Norman says.

He took aim at Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews over his decision to close Victoria’s golf courses when that government was encouraging “fresh air and exercise and then you couldn’t get on a golf course”.

“I thought the decision that the Victorian government made about golf was the most asinine decision,” he says. “All they had to do was take a look at what happened in America — they opened up golf courses and golf has thrived over here.”

Greg Norman and Donald Trump.

Norman has played a key role in fostering closer ties between the Trump administration and Australia and in 2016 he famously gave the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull the phone number of the newly elected Trump, whom Norman met in the 1990s through their mutual love of golf and business.

Four years on, he admires how Trump has stuck to his guns despite relentless attacks on him.

“I admire how thick his skin is,” says Norman, reflecting upon the public criticism he sometimes attracted during his golfing ­career. “I can only relate this in a way to my world to some degree and how the tall poppy syndrome in Australia can just really gnaw at you and take you down pretty hard, even though you’ve done nothing wrong.

“I actually admire Donald Trump for staying his course, getting the abuse whether it’s from the investigations into Russia and all that stuff, yada, yada, yada, the same old rhetoric.”

He says the American taxpayer had to spend many millions of dollars on anti-Trump investigations for nothing. “It’s just a waste of time, money and energy through pure hatred, it’s something I’ve never seen in America and I’ve been here for 40 years.”

Although Norman believes Trump has performed well as President, he is distressed by divisions in the country, especially the polarised nature of the US media. “I just hate to see how broken America is,” he says.

“I would really love to see a fairer, balanced (media) and get all this vitriol through the media out of here. I’m blaming them all, I am not biased to one or the other — it’s never ever been this way.

“Now Trump, of course, he says things ... but that’s his style, love it or hate it.”

Norman says he feels sorry for those Americans who voted for Trump and now find themselves on one side of a bitter partisan divide.

“When Trump came to the ticket, a certain portion of the American people were given a rudder they had never had before and that rudder gave them hope and an economic upturn and security. And now the American people are so divided — no matter whether you turn on Fox or CNN.

“I don’t know who to believe any more — it is absolutely a crying shame,” he says.

Greg Norman.

Although Trump is currently trailing Biden by almost eight points in the polls, Norman says he believes the President has a strong chance of winning on Nov­ember 3. “I think the election is going to be closer than what people think — I am looking at the undecided voters. I just think there is a little bit more happening behind the scenes, and I definitely don’t believe polls,” he says.

“I think Trump has a good chance of winning, I think there is very quiet support behind him that really hasn’t spoken yet.”

Norman also says he has nothing against Biden, whom he has met and whom he liked.

“I had a fortunate opportunity to meet (Biden) at the White House, he took me into the vice-president’s room and we sat down and had a chat ... he wanted to hear my view on golf and on life and I thought that was pretty impressive,” he says.

“I like Joe Biden (but) what I don’t like are the people potentially around him giving him advice — and again, do you want to believe all the rhetoric about the socialist-leaning left? I don’t want to go in that direction.”

As a player, the Queensland-born Norman held the sporting world in thrall with his do-or-die approach to golf that saw him hold the No 1 rating for 331 weeks, a record second only to Tiger Woods’s.

From his base in Florida, he has since built a multi-pronged business empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars, from designing golf courses to real estate, interior design, BBQ restaurants and wagyu beef.

Despite America’s current problems, he is an optimist about the nation that allowed him to build his empire. “America has been a great country for me, a great country for my company,” he says. “Only America could have given me the opportunity because America gives that freedom to allow people to chase and achieve their dreams.”

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia