WASHINGTON (AP) – The midterm elections are looming and the first hurricane of the Atlantic season threatens the Gulf Coast.
But the president Donald Trump he really, really hopes the weather doesn’t keep him from going to another big college football game – this one in Alabama on Saturday evening.
“Well, the hurricane and football? I love Alabama. I have to go to the game. It would be awfully difficult,” Trump said Wednesday, when asked if Hurricane Isaiah — and a forecast trajectory in which parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida brace for significant impacts — could change his plans.
Trump was scheduled to visit Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa when Alabama hosts Georgia in a Top 10 game, following an afternoon rally in Tennessee.
Officials are still discussing how the storm could affect the game. But if it happens and Trump is there, it will be the 10th college football game he has attended as president since 2017 — including the one in late September in Washington. Knoxville when Texas dominated Tennessee 20-17.
Trump told reporters Wednesday “if there’s a hurricane, I don’t want to do anything” to distract first responders and law enforcement from the storm, saying he wants people to be safe.
“We’ll have to see,” he said.
It is unusual to mix football and midterm politics
A president trying to give his party a boost in the midterms typically wouldn’t even consider attending two college football games so close to Election Day. But Trump’s longtime love of sports — and large crowds — are often key factors in his travel schedule.
Live sports — especially big games that draw casual fans across the country — are one of the few television programs capable of still attracting large audiences in real time. But mixing sports and politics can be tricky: Trump received cheers but also boos when he was broadcast on the jumbotron in Tennessee, despite being in a deep red state.
“I think what they’re trying to do is get that outreach: try to generate excitement, especially among young men,” said Dan Palazzolo, a political scientist at the University of Richmond who has researched, written and taught about the intersection of politics and sports.
Tennessee and Alabama are “safe territory,” Palazzolo said, and Trump “clearly sees sports as sort of a way to connect with a certain part of the base.”
While presidents usually visit key states before elections, Trump’s speech drop in approval rates means some GOP candidates may be looking to distance themselves from the The war in Iran, increasingly unpopular and the this caused gasoline prices to rise.
The White House says Trump’s attendance at football games — even in reliably Republican states — can energize his core supporters across the country. White House spokesman Taylor Rogers described the president as “the greatest champion of college sports in American history” and said Trump had used his executive powers and defended congressional efforts to try to rethink the way sport is governed.
Trump now has a week of travel he said would amount to 32 days before Election Day on Nov. 3 — including a visit last week to Alabama and other stops in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Nebraska. Changes in the coming weeks will take it to Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Kansas and Alaska, among others.
Presidents have used sports for political purposes before. But not like this
Richard Nixon publicly leaned on his fierce love of football to “make a political difference by capturing the values of the Midwestern working class,” Palazzolo said. His successor, Gerald Ford, was a standout center at the University of Michigan and used his playing years as a key part of his personal and popular style during his campaign.
But Trump has made sporting events a big part of his second term. A former owner of USFL New Jersey Generals, Trump recently attended the Presidents Cup and flew towards his golf course for the Irish Open.
He was at World Cup FinalTHE NBA Finals and the NCAA Football Championship Gamewhile celebrating his 80th birthday with a UFC Extravaganza on the White House Lawn.
In 2025 alone, Trump visited Super BowlTHE Daytona 500THE Ryder Cupa New York Yankees game and the US Open men’s finalas well as UFC fights and NCAA Wrestling Championships.
“I think it helps the brand more than anything else. Because I think his brand is ‘Sports Guy,'” said Dave Mowery, an Alabama-based consultant who has worked on campaigns for both parties.
“I know it’s all political,” Mowery said. “But that almost puts him above politics and into that type of guy you see in the club with people.”
In some states, there is a risk of backlash
Mowery, a Georgia fan who plans to attend Saturday’s game against Alabama, said a presidential visit means fans have to deal with extra security measures and arrive early to sit in the stands well before the game starts.
He said not everyone would support Trump, although few would be frustrated enough by disruptions that could prevent Democrats from voting on this issue alone. Seeing the president appear on the scoreboard or wave to the crowd from a private box probably won’t win him any crowd votes either, Mowery said.
Palazzolo said he thought it was a “waste of time” for a president to go to a football game when there was no evidence that it could influence voter behavior — and he added that it risked backlash, especially in parts of the country where football remains bipartisan with “conservatives and liberals finding common ground.”
Mowery said the difference between attending a big game in the South and other parts of the country is that college football is the main attraction. That contrasts with NFL games, which might be bigger in other battleground states further north.
He also said it was no coincidence that Trump was content to attend marquee college games.
“If ‘Sports Guy’ helps move the brand forward, then you want to be at the top of that food chain,” Mowery said. “He wants to go to the best game on the board. He wants to go to the top of the pop.”
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