There were no trays of cheeseburgers and other fast-food items stacked on a table at the White House on Thursday as President Joe Biden welcomed the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics. That could soon change, however, with the return of Donald Trump.
It was less than six years ago, in January 2019, when that surreal scene greeted the college football champion Clemson Tigers in the executive mansion’s ornate State Dining Room. Trump, still in his overcoat after returning from a day trip, welcomed the squad with a spread of McDonald’s and Wendy’s delicacies on silver platters that the White House said he personally paid for — as a portrait of a pensive-looking Abraham Lincoln hung in the center of the room.
One longtime political observer could not stop laughing when asked last week about some of Trump’s Cabinet and senior staff picks, before contending: “The country’s getting what it signed up for.” That, in part, would be the return of an avid sports fan who has not been afraid to weigh in on or directly influence sporting matters.
Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who noted he has “played a lot of golf” with the president-elect, said there was “not a bigger supporter of sports than President Trump.”
“I think he’s gonna be very hands-on,” the former college football coach said, but with a caveat: “But you’ve got to look at … all the things that he’s got to do — his first 100 days are going to be packed.”
Trump, as he did in the first term, will likely not be shy about making political hay out of sports moments and issues that become broader cultural matters, as he did with athletes kneeling during the national anthem and, more recently, calling for the NFL to change its new kickoff rule, which is designed for player safety. But he will likely also have a role to play on several topics that could be on lawmakers’ radar come January.