USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect/Reinhold Matay
President Donald Trump and Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods was in court this week where he accepted a plea agreement related to his DUI arrest from March of this year. As part of the plea deal, Eldrick ‘Tiger’ Woods forfeited his driver’s license for five years and here in the state of Florida that includes driving golf carts on public roads as they are classified as motor vehicles.
Already, Florida governor Ron DeSantis spoke out and gave his opinion on Tiger Woods being unable to drive a golf cart while his license is suspended. Later in the day, President Donald Trump was asked about Tiger Woods‘ situation.
President Donald Trump Weighs In On Tiger Woods Losing His License
During a press conference this week following the Tiger Woods news, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy began to ask the President a question, saying “Tiger Woods, who famously called you as he was being arrested, has agreed to have a suspended driver’s license for 5 years.” In the end, there was no question. That is more of a prompt than anything, an encouragement to spur the President to discuss Tiger Woods.
President Trump took the bait and launched into a lengthy answer. He said:
“I know Tiger very well. He’s a great guy, uh, he’s unique in so many ways, especially as an athlete, but also as a man. You know, he suffers great pain, great pain. It’s a very tough situation because they didn’t find alcohol on him.”
“You know, he didn’t test positive at all for alcohol. But he, because of his horrible back, because he had a, in my opinion, a bad doctor, but he had a back operation that did not work out well, and he is under pain and so it’s a tough deal when you’re taking a painkiller because you’re under pain and you have a problem and you test positive, he would have told him that. I mean, it’s a prescription painkiller.”
Here is the video of the interaction:
Doocy: Tiger Woods, who famously called you as he was being arrested, has agreed to have a suspended driver's license for 5 years.
Trump: I know Tiger very well. He's a great guy, uh, he's unique in so many ways, especially as an athlete, but also as a man. You know, he suffers… pic.twitter.com/9YhNnUNSR5
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 2, 2026
During the plea hearing, Judge Darren Steele told Tiger Woods “There are no exceptions. If you were to drive for any reason at all, you would go immediately back to jail.” Many outlets quickly jumped at ‘that means golf carts in Florida’ when in reality, it means driving golf carts in a street legal manner.
In the state of Florida, it is not legally required to have a driver’s license to drive a golf cart at private courses in Florida or on private property. Of course, the judge’s ruling could override that in the case of Tiger Woods but a driver’s license is not necessary at Tiger’s private golf club or on his home property. Street legal is a different story altogether. Those are off limits for Tiger for the next five years in the Sunshine State.