Trump will attend NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia this weekend

Julia Terruso, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 18, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump will head to Philadelphia this weekend to watch the NCAA wrestling championships at the Wells Fargo Center, his first trip to the city since being sworn in for a second time as president.

Trump’s plans were first reported by Clay Travis, founder of OutKick, an American sports and political commentary website owned by Fox. Travis said on X that he had been added to the press pool covering Trump’s trip.

A White House official confirmed the plans but did not specify which day Trump would attend. The competition runs Thursday through Saturday.

Sen. Dave McCormick, R.-Pa., a former West Point wrestler, will attend the championships Saturday, a spokesperson said.

In 2023, Trump attended the NCAA wrestling finals in Tulsa, Okla., on the final day of competition.

Pennsylvania State University is a heavy favorite in this year’s tournament after winning the team title, scoring five individual champion titles, and qualifying all 10 of its wrestlers for the NCAA Championships at the Big Ten championships earlier this month. The Nittany Lions broke their own all-time scoring record at that event.

The team now has the chance to break its NCAA scoring record on home-state turf with the president watching. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump paid a visit to Penn State’s campus, appealing to younger voters there.

The visit to the NCAA competition comes weeks after the association banned transgender women from participating in female sports, a major goal of Trump’s administration.

Trump’s visit to Pennsylvania, a swing state key to his victory in the 2024 presidential election, comes as his approval rating has reached an all-time high, but as voters also say they are worried about the sagging economy and aggressive cuts to the federal workforce and government programs.

Trump has made far fewer domestic trips at the start of his second term than he did in 2017. According to a review of his public schedule, this is Trump’s first public visit to Pennsylvania, and one of just a few trips he has taken outside of the Washington metro area or his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump made more than 25 visits to Pennsylvania, among the most of any state.

Trump is a longtime fan of both competitive and professional wrestling. Linda MacMahon, a former professional wrestling promoter, was picked by Trump to run the Small Business Administration in his first presidency, and the Department of Education in his second term.

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