Donald Trump clinched his second term as president early Wednesday. His third campaign was buoyed by $100 million from Mavericks owner Dr. Miriam Adelson, who backed his first two runs for the Oval Office to a similar extent. A handful of other U.S. sports owners gave thousands in support of Trump, and plenty of prominent athletes and coaches have backed him for years.
But Trump’s connections to sports don’t just lie in donations and endorsements. He appointed key sports figures to his first administration, including team owners and league founders, and he has already laid the foundation for bringing some back and adding new ones.
Here are some of the major sports figures who could find a place in Trump’s second presidential administration:
Woody Johnson
Who? The owner of the New York Jets and heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune.
Ties to Trump: Johnson was Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2021. This cycle, he gave more than $800,000 to help Trump get elected.
Potential role: “Many people inside the Jets” have thought there’s a strong chance Johnson will rejoin Trump’s administration if the former president were to win, according to the New York Post. (His brother Christopher took over the team during Woody’s three-and-a-half scandal-filled years in the U.K.) Johnson did attend Trump’s election night festivities at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. Trump hasn’t yet indicated where he might place Johnson within his second administration.
Linda McMahon
Who? The former cofounder, CEO, and president of WWE. She is married to Vince McMahon, the former WWE head who is facing allegations of sex trafficking and abuse.
Ties to Trump: McMahon served as Trump’s head of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019, before she left to help run his reelection campaign super PAC. She chairs a pro-Trump think tank, sits on the board of the parent company that owns his social media platform, and has given millions of dollars to his campaigns over the years. She spoke at the Republican National Convention this July.
Potential role: McMahon has previously suggested she’s “ready to serve” should Trump call on her again. When McMahon stepped down from the SBA, Trump said she had “done an incredible job” and called her a “superstar.”
Herschel Walker
Who? A Heisman Trophy–winning college football legend at Georgia who played in the NFL for 12 years and the 2022 losing GOP Senate candidate in Georgia.
Ties to Trump: Walker was drafted to Trump’s United States Football League team, the New Jersey Generals, in 1983, and the two have long had, in Walker’s words, a “deep personal friendship.” Their families have been to Disney World together. The former player spoke at the 2020 RNC. Walker served on Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition from 2018 to 2022, co-chairing the group from 2019 to 2020. He was asked to resign in 2022 along with former TV host Dr. Oz as the two were running for Senate.
Potential role: Trump has reiterated throughout his campaign that he wants to build a missile defense shield, like Israel’s Iron Dome, to protect the U.S. from short-range missiles. At a rally in Macon, Ga., on Sunday where Walker made remarks, Trump said “a lot of” of the missile defense system would be built in Georgia, and he would “put Herschel Walker in charge of that little sucker.”
Dana White
Who? The CEO and president of UFC.
Ties to Trump: White told CNN earlier this year that he and Trump have been friends for almost 25 years, since the first UFC matches after White took over the organization in 2001 held at Trump Taj Mahal, now the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. He gave $16,000 to Trump’s reelection this year. He spoke at the RNC in 2016, 2020, and 2024, where he introduced the nominee (a break from tradition, which states the candidate is usually introduced by a family member).
Potential role: It’s not clear where Trump envisions White in his administration, but he did bring his friend onstage during his victory speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night. White showered Trump and his family with compliments on their resilience and work ethic. “I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,” White said, referencing the popular creators and podcast hosts who interviewed Trump during the campaign trail and have been credited with helping him improve his popularity with younger male voters.
Trump has joked about one specific role for White. He said in June that he thought White should set up a league of fighters consisting of immigrants, and have them compete against UFC athletes, but the fighting exec “didn’t like that idea too much.”
Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea
Who? Wrestling’s most famous star.
Ties to Trump: Bollea and Trump are both members of the WWE Hall of Fame, and Bollea spoke at both the RNC in July—tearing his shirt off live onstage—and Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in October. Hogan claims he was not backing Trump until the Pennsylvania assassination attempt, though Bollea and Trump have long employed the same defamation lawyer, Charles Harder.
Potential role: Trump has said that former third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a wide brief and “big role” in his administration on health and pharmaceuticals. Bollea has volunteered himself for whichever department RFK ends up running.
“And when I had Trump in the back at the Garden, I said, ‘You know something? This Robert Kennedy Jr., he’s onto something with nutrition.’ But if you tag-team us up as the mega powers, you know—the MAGA-powers, RFK Jr. and Hulk Hogan—he can get them eating the right food and I can get all of our kids in shape, brother,” Bollea said on Fox News.
The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition
In his first term, Trump used the long-standing council to appoint famous people from sports and health who had supported him. In 2018, that group included Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera, then-Patriots coach Bill Belichick, football coach Urban Meyer, UFC fighters Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, and many others. Biden’s council is co-chaired by WNBA player Elena Delle Donne, and includes Stephen and Ayesha Curry, Olympic gold medal snowboarder Chloe Kim, Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts, and Kim Ng, who was MLB’s first woman GM.
