Trump Heads To Stadium While Congress Stalls On Sports Bill
President Trump is heading to Knoxville for a college football game. He will join a sold-out crowd at Neyland Stadium on Saturday. The game starts at noon ET between Texas and Tennessee. Both teams are ranked in the top 13 in the nation. The stadium holds nearly 102,000 people, per Breitbart. This is not just a trip. It is a message.
The Washington Examiner confirmed the White House told them the trip is real. But the real story is what he wants to change while he watches. Congress is being urged by Trump to enact the Protect College Sports Act. He wants lawmakers to stop grandstanding and get this done. That quote came from him before lawmakers went on recess in August.
The bill would create a national standard for name, image, and likeness deals. It is advancing in the Senate for a floor vote soon. Senator Ted Cruz is a co-author of this bipartisan effort.
He appeared on ESPN's College GameDay earlier this month in Austin. Now the President is at the stadium in person. The Washington Times also confirmed his attendance for the Saturday matchup. He is using the spotlight to force a vote on the law. Here is the thing that might surprise you. Major news outlets only knew about the trip because one man tweeted it.
Clay Travis, the founder of OutKick, reported the news first. The White House confirmed to The Washington Examiner that they only told the New York Times after Travis posted on X. Yet the New York Times article did not mention Travis at all. Travis told the NYT that the White House verified his report regarding President Trump's upcoming Texas-Tennessee trip. He further remarked that the inquiry arose solely due to his Tweet. Yet no mention of me in the article. ESPN declined to say if Trump will appear on their pre-game show. That leaves the physical presence as the only confirmed part of his visit.
This visit changes the dynamic for the athletes on the field. They are playing in front of a president who wants to fix their pay rules. The bill aims to stop the chaos in college sports funding. Trump is telling Congress that the time for delay is over.
He is doing this while the game is sold out and the cameras are rolling. The pressure is now on the Senate to act before the next session. One man's tweet broke the story, and the big papers tried to hide it. But the facts are clear, and the President is making his move.
The truth is harder to ignore when it happens in front of 100,000 fans.