Donald Trump has consistently made it clear that he will use sports to try to improve his public image. He has made multiple appearances at massive sporting events just three months into his second Presidency. However, many fans are starting to notice that his athlete supporters are going through some troubling times.
“Get Him Away” Donald Trump Sees Numerous Athletes Who Support Him Suffer Horrible Fate
In the sport industry, Donald Trump may have replaced Drake as the biggest curse:
As several UFC fans noted online, the President’s favorite fighters and others who are vocally supportive of Trump have struggled in the Octagon.
Most recently it was Bo Nickal who fell by second-round TKO to former ONE Championship star Reinier de Ridder at UFC Fight Night on Sunday in Iowa. Nickal was praised by Trump during his widely publicized pre-election interview with podcaster and UFC announcer Joe Rogan: ‘I think he’s terrific.’
This comes after UFC 314, where vocal Trump supporters Michael Chandler and Bryce Mitchell both failed to go the distance. For Mitchell, an Arkansas native who said he’d ‘take a bullet and die’ for Trump, it was his first fight since going unpunished for his praise Adolf Hitler.
And it’s not just MMA. Trump’s support of Team USA at the NHL’s Four Nations tournament and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX both ended in disappointment, none of which can really be blamed on the President, although that’s not stopping his critics.
‘Bryce Mitchell, Michael Chandler, and now Bo Nickal,’ wrote sports blogger Karim Zidan on X. ‘Glorious to see Trump’s favs getting slept. Actually making the sport tolerable again.’
Zidan was quickly reminded of Colby Covington’s December defeat to Joaquin Buckley. Covington, who shares mutual admiration with Trump, suffered his fourth defeat in his last six bouts due to a cut over his right eye.
‘Damn, I did forget that!’ he added.
‘Could not agree more,’ another responded before mentioning a hypothetical matchup between Tom Aspinall and Trump-supporting UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones. ‘Aspinall icing Jones would be the absolute cherry on top.’
And it’s not only MMA fighters who have suffered humiliating defeats while trying to show their support for Trump.
In 2018 it was MAGA boxer Rod Salka, who wore ‘America First’ trunks for a bout against Mexico’s Francisco Vargas, only to throw in the towel in the sixth round.
Beyond Salka’s pro-Trump message on his waistband, his shorts also had a brick-wall theme, in reference to the President’s since-abandoned border-wall proposal.
Of course, not all pro-Trump fighters are doomed. In fact, Jones won in front of Trump in November, beating Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden shortly after the Republican’s electoral victory.
He even celebrated by bowing to the President-elect, who was seated ringside.
But for a President who associates himself with athletic greats like Wayne Gretzky, Trump hasn’t had too many sporting victories to celebrate.
He doted on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his ‘beautiful wife’ Brittany ahead of Super Bowl LIX, where his prediction for a Kansas City threepeat was spoiled by the Philadelphia Eagles. Then there was the NHL’s Four Nationals tournament, where a groundswell of patriotic fervor gave way to a demoralizing loss to Team Canada following Trump’s pre-game pep talk to the Americans.
‘And just like that tRump (sic) screws over yet another team…..everything he touches dies!’ one fan wrote on X following the Four Nations final.
‘TRUMP PICKS CHIEFS: CHIEFS LOSE. TRUMP PICKS TEAM USA: USA LOSE,’ another posted, spelling out the conspiracy theory.
‘Everything Trump Touches Dies,’ a third chimed in, alongside a GIF of fans waving a Canadian flag.
And long before he ran for President, Trump misfired on the 2004 American League Championship Series as the Boston Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the New York Yankees and his personal friend, late team owner George Steinbrenner.
‘Oh, you have to respect them,’ Trump said of the Red Sox prior to Game 7. ‘I mean they’ve had great fight, great comeback, and now we’ll see if they can take it all the way. But the Yankees are the Yankees and George is a winner.’
