Minutes before his DUI arrest, Tiger Woods called Donald Trump

One week ago, Tiger Woods crashed his SUV in Florida, close to his Jupiter estate. Soon after the crash, Tiger was arrested for a DUI. He has maintained that he wasn’t drunk and I sort of believed him. Historically, Tiger’s issues haven’t been alcohol-related, but he’s had a well-documented problem with prescription pills in the past. And he likely still has a problem with pills, especially given his near-constant surgeries and injury-rehabilitation, and given the fact that he was carrying loose pain pills when he crashed. We learned from the arrest report that during the arrest, he was glassy-eyed, hiccuping and generally out of it post-crash. Just as the stories were reaching a fever pitch, it became clear to Tiger that he couldn’t just shrug this off. He announced that he was seeking treatment this week and I hope he really goes to rehab again and figures his sh-t out.

Meanwhile, bodycam and police-cam videos of Tiger’s arrest were released on Thursday. This is all public record, so it’s not like these are sleazy tabloid leaks. If anything, the Florida cops clearly knew who he was and they treated him with polite firmness. Like, yes, he is a VIP but they still arrested him and they weren’t intimidated by his status. The screenshots of Tiger in the back of the police cruiser are already the memes of the week!

The funniest and wackiest part of these arrest videos? Just minutes after the crash and before Tiger’s arrest, he walks off down a road and calls someone on his cellphone. Go to the 17-minute mark of the USA Today video and you can see the cop calling out to Tiger as he’s on his phone. Tiger saunters back over to the cop and says, “Yeah, I was just talking to the president!” Tiger, high as a f–king kite on hydrocodone, having just crashed his car by a yacht club, calls up Donald Trump just minutes before his arrest? My god.

Screencaps from Florida law enforcement body-cam videos. Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.