Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Here’s What Happened When Billy Crystal Golfed with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton

Donald Trump, Billy Crystal, Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg all walk onto a golf course…

Nope, that’s not the start of a joke.

There was actually a time when those five men hung out—and Jimmy Kimmel has photographic evidence.

“I want to ask you about a photo,” Kimmel said to Crystal during a his talk show appearance Thursday night, as he pulled out a picture of the five men posing together at a charity golf tournament.

“This was years ago, this was when Trump was a Democrat,” Crystal quipped.

The comedian went onto to recall the experience of golfing with Clinton, who knew the course very well because it was right by his house in Chappaqua, New York.

This proved to be irksome because the then-President proceeded to instruct each of them exactly how to swing at each hole.

“By the fourth hole, you want to hit him with your putter,” Crystal said.

As for the other men?

Crystal called Giuliani a “really good guy” who took an odd turn recently. “I don’t know what happened to him,” Crystal said. “But he got nuts.”

The comedian didn’t comment too much on Trump’s win (aside from a killer impression of the presidential-elect) but did have some words of wisdom for the country.

“We’re in this together,” he said. “We’re Americans, we all have to do the best that we can—and we will, because that’s who we are.”

Watch the video in full below (no, really, his impressions of Trump and Clinton are worth it):

Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @theakglassman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.