President Trump Gives Shout-Outs To "The Great" Vince McMahon And Dana White
President Donald Trump gave a shout-out to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon during today's coronavirus briefing at the White House.
As seen in the video below, Trump was speaking about sports leagues getting back to regular business around the country after being impacted from the COVID-19 outbreak. He named McMahon along with several other bosses from around the sports world that will be helping to advise the President on getting the economy back up & running.
"In sports, we want to get our sports back, so important," Trump said. "These will be some separate calls, some will be together, by the way, and some will be separate. But we have to get our sports back. I'm tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old, but I haven't actually had too much time to watch. I would say maybe I watch one batter and then I get back to work.
"The NBA – Adam Silver, the Major League Baseball – we miss our baseball players and this is baseball season right here. Rob Manfred, thank you very much. NFL – Roger Goodell, thank you Roger. UFC – Dana White, great Dana White. PGA – Jay Monahan, LPGA – Michael Whan, USDA – Patrick Galbraith, Major League Soccer – Don Garber, WWE – the great Vince McMahon, NASCAR – Lesa Kennedy, thank you Lesa. NHL – Gary Bettman. From the New England Patriots – Bob Kraft, from the Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones, Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban."
As noted earlier this month, Trump held a conference call with sports league bosses, including Vince and the other names mentioned above, and talked about getting back to business. Trump said then that he hopes to have fans back in stadiums and arenas by August and September, but it was unclear if medical experts will agree that this is a realistic timeline during the coronavirus pandemic. It sounds like they are hoping to have sports business back to somewhat regular operations before then, but that remains to be seen.
Trump has been somewhat associated with WWE and Vince since the late 1980s as WWE ran events in Trump properties in the Northeast. Vince and Trump then went against each other in "The Battle of The Billionaires" at WrestleMania 23 in 2007, which saw Trump shave Vince's head after Trump's representative, Bobby Lashley, defeated Vince's chosen one, Umaga. WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin was the special referee and assisted Trump with Vince's shaving in the ring. Trump, who made other WWE TV appearances before getting into politics, was inducted into the Celebrity Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. Vince and the entire McMahon family joined Trump and Linda McMahon in the Oval Office of The White House back in February 2017 when Linda was named the head of Trump's Small Business Administration. Linda now runs a pro-Trump Super PAC for his re-election later this year.
Below is a quick clip of Trump mentioning the sports bosses during the briefing today: