Pat McAfee Responds to Criticism for Having President Trump on ESPN Show: ‘He Is Hilarious’

ESPN host Pat McAfee is standing by his decision to interview President Donald Trump on his show on Veterans Day.

“For the immediate people that are going to be mad about that happening, it’s the President of the United States,” he said on the Tuesday, November 11 episode of The Pat McAfee Show. “It’s Veterans Day. He’s the Commander-in-Chief. Obviously, if we have the opportunity to talk to him, we’re going to. And he is hilarious.”

McAfee, 38, added that his show also “reached out to former President Barack Obama after Trump became an option to be interviewed.” The 44th President, however, was “unable to join due to scheduling conflicts.”

The decision to interview Trump, 79, on-air seems to be a reversal of McAfee’s previous philosophy. He said in 2024 that he does not believe viewers wanted to hear him talk about politics.

“I haven’t polled our crowd but I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hangout with us to hear us talk about politics,” McAfee wrote via X at the time.

He continued, “I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success actually… so all of this has been a good reminder of what we’re good for, and who we’re good for. Some day, I’ll try and build up enough of a brain to dive into the politics world but that time is nowhere near now.”

A year later, McAfee and Trump had a wide-ranging conversation that included healthy doses of politics and sports. Trump even weighed in on the state of college athletics.

At a time of rapid change as schools try to adjust to the ever-changing name, image and likeness rules, Trump bemoaned the loss of the so-called “non-revenue” sports, which in some cases are being cut or otherwise de-emphasized on campus.

“A lot of the lesser sports are being terminated,” he said. “It’s a shame, it was almost like a training ground for the Olympics and a lot of those training grounds are being lost.”

He also predicted that even big-time college football programs wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rising cost of fielding elite talent.

“It is a very serious problem because even football, when they give quarterbacks $12 million, $13 million, $14 million, …all of a sudden you’re going to see it’s going to be out of control,” Trump said. “And even rich colleges are going to go bust because you’re not going to be able to do this.”

It should be noted that while schools can now pay athletes through revenue sharing, they are capped at $20.5 million for the entire athletic department.

Trump himself is an avid sports fan and has traveled to stadiums nationwide during his two terms in office. As President, he has taken in the Army-Navy football game, visited the New York Yankees in their clubhouse, seen the Super Bowl live and caught the Daytona 500.

Trump has even reportedly expressed a desire to have the new Washington Commanders’ stadium named after himself.

“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Us Weekly in a statement on Saturday, November 8.

He also appeared in the Fox broadcast booth during the game between the Commanders and Detroit Lions on Sunday, November 9, where he talked about his own high school football days and opened up about his love for sports.

“It’s a microcosm of life,” he said. “It’s sort of like life, you know? The good, the bad and the ugly, right?”