This isn’t just about golf, though Trump’s love for the links, shared by presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama, remains a constant. It’s about a broader, louder, and more visceral engagement. In the past few months alone, Trump has made history as the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl, waved the green flag at the Daytona 500, and cheered alongside wrestling fans at the NCAA men’s wrestling championships. Add to that his frequent cage-side appearances at UFC events, and a pattern emerges: Trump isn’t just showing up — he’s being celebrated. Crowds chant “USA! USA!” as he enters arenas, drivers salute him from the track, and fighters dedicate victories to him with a nod and a grin. What’s driving this mutual affection, and what does it mean for politics, sports, and the culture at large? The answer lies in Trump’s knack for turning every game into his game — and the sports world’s unexpected willingness to play along.

Historic hat trick

Trump’s sports odyssey in 2025 began with a bang on Feb. 9, when he strode into the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. The matchup pitted the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles, a clash of titans that drew 115 million viewers. As the Fox broadcast panned to Trump in the stands, flanked by Secret Service and a retinue of loyalists, the crowd erupted. “It was deafening,” one attendee later posted online. “Love him or hate him, the guy owns the room.” Trump became the first sitting president to attend the NFL’s marquee event, a feat that underscored his willingness to break from tradition and dive headfirst into America’s most-watched spectacle.  

A week later, on Feb. 16, Trump traded the turf for the asphalt, rolling into Daytona International Speedway as the grand marshal of the Daytona 500. His motorcade, led by “The Beast,” took a ceremonial lap around the track, a 20,000-pound symbol of presidential power hugging the banked turns at 70 mph. The 150,000-strong crowd roared its approval, waving flags and snapping photos as Air Force One buzzed overhead earlier that day. Trump’s voice crackled over the drivers’ radios: “This is your favorite president — go out there and win!” Drivers like Kyle Larson tipped their helmets, and the fans ate it up. It was his second Daytona appearance as president — he’d done it in 2020, too — but this time, the reception felt hotter, more electric.  

Then came March 22, when Trump descended on Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center for the NCAA men’s wrestling championships. Accompanied by heavy hitters like Elon Musk, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), and former NCAA wrestling champ Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Trump didn’t just watch — he mingled. He shook hands with sweat-drenched wrestlers fresh off title bouts, posed for photos, and soaked in the chants of “USA! USA!” from a packed house. Penn State’s Josh Barr told reporters, “It’s a great honor for the sport. President Trump brings life and energy.” Two years earlier, in Tulsa, he’d attended the same event, but this time, the spotlight felt brighter, the crowd’s fervor more intense.

The UFC connection

If Trump’s appearances at the Super Bowl, NASCAR, and wrestling were headline-grabbing one-offs, his relationship with the Ultimate Fighting Championship is a long-running love affair. Since his days hosting UFC events at his Atlantic City casinos in the early 2000s — back when the sport was still dismissed as “human cockfighting” by the likes of Arizona Sen. John McCain — Trump has been a fixture in the MMA world. His friendship with UFC President Dana White, who spoke at the 2016 and 2020 Republican National Conventions, is well documented. White credits Trump with giving the fledgling league a lifeline when no one else would touch it.  

Since his reelection in November 2024, Trump has doubled down. At UFC 309 in New York, just weeks after his victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, he sat cage-side with Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his son Don Jr. When heavyweight champ Jon Jones knocked out Stipe Miocic, he didn’t just celebrate — he did the “Trump dance,” the now-iconic double-fist-pumping jig Trump debuted at rallies, and then handed his belt to the president to hold. The crowd went wild. Trump has been spotted at UFC events in Las Vegas and Miami, too, each time greeted with cheers and chants. “He’s one of us,” a fan told Fox News outside Madison Square Garden. “He gets the fight game.”

A postelection victory lap

That “Trump dance” Jones performed? It’s not just a UFC thing — it’s a cultural contagion that started spreading through the NFL right after the election. Picture this: elbows bent, fists clenched, and arms swinging side to side like a metronome on a mission. Trump’s been doing it at rallies for years, but it exploded into sports after Nov. 5, 2024. Detroit Lions defensemen, led by Za’Darius Smith, broke it out after a clutch play during their 52-6 Nov. 17 trouncing of the Jacksonville Jaguars. That same week, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers did it after scoring a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins, later telling USA Today, “I saw Jon Jones do it at UFC — I thought it was cool.” Not wanting to miss the party, San Francisco 49ers star defensive end Nick Bosa flashed it after a sack in a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, earning a shoutout from the president on Truth Social: “A GREAT PLAYER!”  

The dance’s viral spread through the NFL, a league once at loggerheads with Trump over anthem protests, hints at a deeper shift. In 2017, Trump railed against players like Colin Kaepernick for kneeling, calling them “sons of bitches” who should be fired. The league pushed back, with Commissioner Roger Goodell defending players’ rights to protest. But fast-forward to 2025, and the NFL seems to have softened. The “End Racism” end-zone stencils were nowhere to be seen in the Super Bowl, replaced by vague platitudes such as “Choose Love.” Some NFL power players, such as New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, have been friends with Trump for decades. Others, such as New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom, have long leaned right. A USA Today analysis found NFL owners donated $3.7 million to Trump-aligned PACs in 2024, dwarfing the $1.35 million given to Democrats. The league’s fan base, too, skews conservative — think heartland tailgates, not coastal wine bars. The “Trump dance” isn’t just a meme. It’s a signal that the NFL, or at least parts of it, is warming to the MAGA playbook.  

Trump’s expanding sports portfolio

Trump’s sports footprint doesn’t stop at the NFL, NASCAR, wrestling, or UFC. Since reclaiming the White House, he has dipped his toes into less conventional waters, proving his knack for turning any field into a Trump-branded stage. In early April, he attended a LIV Golf tournament event held at the Trump National Doral in Miami, earning the praise of U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau while voicing his support for a merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league.

Then there’s his long-standing love affair with tennis, a sport he’s championed since his real estate days. Trump’s properties, such as the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, boast pristine tennis courts, and he has been spotted courtside at the U.S. Open over the years. 

And don’t forget his cameo at the Army-Navy football game on Dec. 14, 2024. Sitting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump tossed the coin — Navy called it right — and received a standing ovation. It wasn’t a professional sporting event, but it was peak Trump: patriotic, rowdy, and unmissable.

A new playbook

What’s striking about Trump’s sports forays isn’t just that he’s showing up — it’s how he’s received. At Daytona, the crowd didn’t just cheer. They treated him like a rock star. At the NCAA wrestling championships, fans drowned out the few boos with patriotic chants. At UFC events, fighters point to him mid-fight, and the arenas shake with approval. Even at the Super Bowl, where the NFL’s urban and suburban fans mix, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Clay Travis, the OutKick founder who joined Trump at the wrestling championships, noted on X: “Trump has now been cheered at the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, and the NCAA Wrestling Championships. Would any Democrat politician have been cheered at any of these? I don’t think so. Dems have completely lost sports fans & Trump has won them.”

This isn’t the Trump of 2017, clashing with the NFL over kneeling or snubbing the Golden State Warriors’ White House visit. This is a Trump who has figured out the game: show up, own the moment, and let the crowd do the rest. His predecessors — Obama with his NCAA brackets and Bush with his Rangers stake — loved sports, but they didn’t dominate them like this. Trump’s not just a fan. He’s a participant, a ringmaster turning every event into a red-white-and-blue rally. And the sports world, long a battleground in the culture wars, seems happy to let him.

So what does this mean? Politically, Trump’s sports obsession is a masterstroke. Sports fans — especially in football, racing, wrestling, and MMA — are a demographic goldmine: working-class, patriotic, and often conservative-leaning. By planting his flag at these events, Trump reinforces his outsider-everyman image while sidestepping the elite media he loves to hate. It’s no coincidence he’s hitting these venues while Democrats focus on policy briefings and Zoom calls. As Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor, told the Guardian, “The infusion of sports culture and politics is a way that Donald Trump can demonstrate wins.” Every cheer is a vote, every chant a poll point.  

For sports, Trump’s embrace is a double-edged sword. His presence boosts visibility — wrestling, a niche sport, got a national spotlight in Philadelphia — but it also risks politicizing what’s meant to be an escape. The NFL’s pivot away from “End Racism” messaging suggests leagues are wary of alienating red-state fans, while the UFC’s all-in MAGA vibe shows how sports can amplify cultural tribes. The NBA’s silence since Trump’s reelection — LeBron James’s once-vocal critiques have gone quiet — hints at a broader retreat from the culture wars among progressive-leaning leagues.  

CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH IN AMERICA 

Culturally, Trump’s sports takeover reflects a nation still wrestling with its identity. The “Trump dance” isn’t just a goofy celebration. It’s a symbol of defiance, a middle finger to the coastal elites who scoff at flyover country. That it’s caught on in the NFL, a league once synonymous with anthem protests, shows how the pendulum has swung. Trump’s America — brash, unapologetic, and in-your-face — is flexing its muscles, and sports are its stage. Whether it’s the roar of a NASCAR engine or the thud of a wrestler hitting the mat, the soundtrack of 2025 is unmistakably Trumpian. 

In the end, Trump’s not just the most sports-involved president of this era — he’s the sportsman in chief, rewriting the playbook for how power plays in the arena. The crowds love it, the athletes salute it, and the culture can’t look away. Love him or loathe him, one thing’s clear: When Trump steps into the game, he doesn’t just play — he wins.

Daniel Ross Goodman is a Washington Examiner contributing writer and the author, most recently, of Soloveitchik’s Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America.