The midterm elections are looming and the first hurricane of the Atlantic Season is menacing the Gulf Coast.
But President Trump is really, really hoping the weather doesn’t stop him from going to another big college football game - this one in Alabama on Saturday night.
“Well, hurricane and football? I love Alabama. I gotta go to the game. It’d be awfully hard,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday, when asked if Hurricane Isaias — and a forecast track which has parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida bracing for significant impacts — might alter his plans.
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Mr. Trump had been set to visit Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa when Alabama hosts Georgia in a Top 10 matchup, following an afternoon rally in Tennessee.
Officials are still discussing how the storm might affect the game. But if it happens and Mr. Trump is there, it would be the 10th college football game he’s attended as president since 2017 — including the late September game in Knoxville when Texas topped Tennessee 20-17.
Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday, “if there’s a hurricane, I don’t want to do anything” to take the focus of first responders and law enforcement away from the storm, saying he wanted people to be safe.
“We’ll have to see,” he said.
A president trying to give his party a midterm boost typically wouldn’t even contemplate going to two college football games so close to Election Day. But Mr. Trump’s longtime love of sports — and big crowds — are often key factors in his travel schedule.
Live sports — especially big games that attract casual fans nationwide — are one of the few televised programs that can still draw large, real-time audiences. But mixing sports and politics can be tricky: Mr. Trump received cheers but also boos when he was shown on Tennessee’s jumbotron, despite being in a deep red state.
“I think what they’re trying to do is get this broadcast: trying to raise enthusiasm, particularly among young men,” said University of Richmond political scientist Dan Palazzolo, who has researched, written and taught about the intersection of politics and sports.
Tennessee and Alabama are “safe turf,” Mr. Palazzolo said, and Mr. Trump “clearly sees sports as a kind of way to connect with a certain part of the base.”
The White House says Mr. Trump attending football games — even in reliably Republican states — can energize his core supporters around the country. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers described the president as “the greatest champion of college sports in American history” and said that Trump has used his executive powers and championed congressional efforts to try to overhaul how the sport is governed.
Mr. Trump is now a week into what he said would be 32 days of travel ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3 — including a visit last week to Alabama and other stops in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Nebraska. Swings in coming weeks will take him to Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Kansas and Alaska, among other places.
Mr. Trump has made sporting events a big part of his second term. A one-time owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, he recently attended the Presidents Cup and flew to his golf course for the Irish Open.
He was at the World Cup final, the NBA finals and the NCAA football championship game, while marking his 80th birthday with a UFC extravaganza on the White House lawn.
In 2025 alone, Mr. Trump went to the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, the Ryder Cup, a New York Yankees game and the U.S. Open men’s final, as well as UFC fights and the NCAA wrestling championships.
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