If you want proof the “woke” era at ESPN is over, all you had to do was watch President Donald Trump’s inaugural Freedom 250 Patriot Games on Tuesday.
Here was Pat McAfee, one of ESPN’s biggest stars, personally greeting Trump on the tarmac in Cleveland before traveling to the event at nearby Spire Academy. Disney chief executive officer Josh D’Amaro and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro also joined McAfee and Trump at the national competition for high school athletes, which was streamed on the ESPN app.
D’Amaro was photographed standing side by side with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. To top it off, ESPN’s Laura Rutledge interviewed Trump. After getting in a plug for ESPN’s first Super Bowl on Feb. 14, 2027, she asked Trump which NFL teams he’s keeping his eye on this season. Trump mentioned the Giants, Patriots, and Rams, “That was great analysis by you, Mr. President,” she noted.
The happy, smiling scene between ESPN/Disney power players and the second Trump administration was a far cry from some of the media giant’s previous tense interactions with “The Donald.”
Earlier this year, the president and Melania Trump publicly called for ABC to sack late night comic Jimmy Kimmel after he joked the First Lady had “the glow of an expectant widow.” Wrote Trump on Truth Social: “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Who can forget the flame war between Trump and ESPN back in 2017 after anchor Jemele Hill called the president a “white supremacist” on X/Twitter? Trump demanded an apology for what a White House spokeswoman called a “fireable” offense (Hill later apologized to ESPN for the incident, which was deemed a violation of the company’s social media policy). Trump also took aim at ESPN on social media, tweeting: “ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!”
But that was a different time—and a different ESPN/Disney. Over the last decade, the four letters have purged many liberal voices who gave conservative critics like Clay Travis of OutKick ammo to attack ESPN’s sports coverage as woke programming ran amok.
After ESPN cancelled Hill’s 6 p.m. SportsCenter show with Michael Smith dubbed “The Six,” she took a buyout and left ESPN in 2018. Hill has plenty of company.
Ryan Clark was just pink-slipped while still on the air. The left-leaning Dan Le Batard parted ways with ESPN in 2021. ESPN cancelled High Noon with Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre in 2020. The duo was once thought to be the successors to Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on Pardon the Interruption, but both were gone from ESPN by 2023. As for Kimmel, it will be worth watching what happens when his contract expires in 2027.
What’s going on? There are multiple factors. Start with ESPN leadership.
Over the past eight years, Pitaro has made it clear he wants ESPN to stick to sports and avoid the third rail of politics. His apolitical stance countered that of the previous president, John Skipper: a liberal Southerner.
“Without question, our data tells us our fans do not want us to cover politics,” Pitaro told Stephen Battaglio of the Los Angeles Times in 2019. “My job is to provide clarity. I really believe that some of our talent was confused on what was expected of them. If you fast-forward to today, I don’t believe they are confused.”
Then there’s the upheaval in cable TV inflicted by cord-cutting. It was easier for Skipper’s outspoken on-air talents to get away with sharing their personal opinions on social media back in 2010 when ESPN was in 100 million U.S. homes. And the media giant’s twin revenue streams from subscribers/advertisers served as a moat guarding Bristol from the normal travails of the TV business.
But cord-cutting has reduced ESPN’s footprint to 60 million homes or less. Yes, Trump’s current approval ratings are hovering at record lows, but he has still won two U.S. presidential elections. In a politically divided country, ESPN can’t afford to alienate half the viewers.
Then there’s the rise of ESPN’s two most popular talents: McAfee and Stephen A. Smith.
There is a growing number of critics who say McAfee leans right politically given his bromance with Trump. Front Office Sports’s Ellyn Briggs reports Trump personally invited McAfee to join him at Tuesday’s event. On Veterans Day, McAfee hosted Trump on his show. The ex-NFL punter took his eponymous show on the road to the White House lawn earlier this year.
Smith, meanwhile, has toyed with the idea of becoming the Democratic candidate for president in 2028. But SAS isn’t a traditional liberal. He’s friends with Fox News personalities Travis, Sean Hannity, and Will Cain. He’s gone on-tour with conservative stalwart Bill O’Reilly. Smith just took a strong stand on the transgender debate splitting the WNBA, arguing that biological males should compete in women’s sports.
Of course, there’s Trump himself. There’s never been a U.S. president who has involved himself more in sports, from the Patriot Games and UFC to the Super Bowl and NBA Finals. During his presidency, Barack Obama made regular appearances on ESPN programming. It behooves Disney/ESPN to stay on the mercurial Trump’s good side when his administration has to approve deals like the ESPN–NFL Network merger his administration approved earlier this year.
So, can you still accuse ESPN of being woke given McAfee’s unapologetic relationship with Trump? It’s a much tougher sell. McAfee’s now facing a backlash, with critics dubbing him “MAGA-fee.” Tweeted one critic: “Pat McAfee claims he and his show aren’t political…yet everything he does is Trump/right leaning.”
At this point, it probably doesn’t matter. As the WNBA is finding out the hard way, sports and politics are inextricably linked. ESPN and the WNBA might not want to enlist in the culture wars any more, but the culture wars will draft them anyway.
For ESPN, that means accepting that there are going to be viewers who believe they’re pushing a liberal agenda—just like there will be viewers who see McAfee and Disney/ESPN leaders as spineless bootlickers for seemingly kissing Trump’s ring.
Bottom line: ESPN can’t win—all it can do is stake out a middle ground. That’s just smart business at a time when ESPN’s model is under more financial pressure than ever before. As Michael Jordan might say: “Republicans buy sneakers too.”
