As soon as he took office, on January 20, Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders. None directly addressed sports, but some will undoubtedly affect them. Here is a look at how that might play out.

Though not outwardly a traditional sports fan, Trump was reportedly a big fan of the showbusiness stylings of wrestling in his childhood. In 1988 and 1989 Trump Plaza brought back-to-back WrestleMania events to Atlantic City. In 2007, he took the stage as he sharpened his entertainment profile. Trump engaged in a storyline with WWE supremo Vince McMahon dubbed the "Battle of the Billionaires" that concluded with a victorious Trump shaving McMahon's head in the ring. Trump is also in the sport's hall of fame.

The rhetoric and showmanship so familiar from his political career were noticeable even then. Now, Trump has benefitted from high-profile endorsements from wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker. And McMahon's estranged wife, Linda McMahon, is his nominee for secretary of state

for education. Given Trump's loyalty to those who back him, WWE should be in a good spot.

Ultimate Fighting Championship boss Dana White was one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders in the 2024 campaign. As with wrestling, Trump backed the combat sport, and its founder White, as early as 2001. It seems to have paid off. UFC has grown enormously in the last decade and has a huge, largely male, fan base that marries well with voters Trump needed.

"President Trump is a fighter. I've been saying this since 2015," White said, when introducing Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention. "I'm in the tough-guy business, and this man is the toughest, most resilient human being that I've ever met in my life."

UFC fighters have consistently backed Trump and the values he aligns himself with and the influence on UFC fans is likely to have helped the incoming president's cause. Though White has said he is done........

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