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Business and personal 45th & 47th President of the United States Tenure
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During his career as a businessman and politician, Donald Trump has had a noted relationship with the sport of American football, both at the professional and collegiate levels. Since the 1980s, he has had a strained relationship with the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world.[1] A 2018 article in Business Insider labeled Trump's relationship with the league "The Pigskin War", calling the NFL "his oldest rival".[1] That same year, sportswriter Adam Schefter of ESPN stated that Trump has "his own little vendetta against the NFL",[1] while Ed Malyon, the sports editor of The Independent, stated in 2019 that, "Trump has long waged war against the NFL".[2]
Starting in the 1980s, Trump has tried on numerous occasions to become an owner of an NFL team, though he has never succeeded in his bids.[1] In the mid-1980s, Trump became the team owner of the New Jersey Generals in the rival United States Football League (USFL) and led the league in a lawsuit against the NFL to attempt to force a merger.[1] The USFL won a pyrrhic victory in the lawsuit, though without a merger or a substantial financial victory.[1] Trump's actions have been widely seen as a major factor in the dissolution of the USFL shortly thereafter.[3] During his first presidency, Trump called for a boycott of the NFL over the U.S. national anthem kneeling protests that many players were participating in,[4][5] with some analysts viewing Trump's comments as part of his continued feud with the NFL.[6][7]
As president, Trump attended several high-profile college football games, primarily in the Southern United States, where he was often well received by attendees. Nicholas Sarantakes, a historian from the Naval War College, compared Trump's fandom of the sport and his use of attending games as a form of political theatre to fellow president Richard Nixon's. According to a 2018 article in The Hill, Trump favored college athletics during his time in office due to his high-profile feud with athletes and associates in professional sports leagues such as the NFL and the NBA.
- ^ a b c d e f Gaines, Cork (June 10, 2018). "Inside Trump's 35-year war with the NFL that has spanned the USFL, Bon Jovi, and Deflategate". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ Malyon, Ed (February 27, 2019). "Cohen: Trump inflated net worth by $4bn to try and buy NFL team". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ Markazi, Arash (July 14, 2015). "5 things about Donald Trump's USFL adventure". ESPN.com. ESPN Inc. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
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