7 Times Trump 'Cursed' Sports Teams With His Support

President Donald Trump has a pretty successful record of endorsing political candidates. Unfortunately, his Midas touch doesn't extend to the sporting world — quite the opposite, in fact.  An online search of the hashtag "#TrumpCurse" or the acronym "ETTD" (Everything Trump Touches Dies) reveal examples of times the commander-in-chief has favored a sports team or player, only to see that pick fail. Why this run of bad luck? Maybe it's connected to Trump's history with baseball, which is as spotty as his bronzer. He has claimed to being so good in high school that he nearly went pro, but some who were around at the time aren't so sure.

Of course, the "curse" is purely coincidental. Athletes and sports fans alike are notoriously superstitious, so it makes sense they'd blame a loss on a controversial political figure rather than on poor performance, injury, or just plain rotten luck. Still, it's interesting to note Trump's track record. 2025 was a particularly bad year for his predictions, but his history goes back farther than that. We offer the evidence and leave you to draw your own conclusions.

One of the earliest examples of the president's sports jinx occurred during his first presidential run in October 2016. Trump spoke at a rally in Pittsburgh, where proud Steelers fans were pumped about their team's promising 4-1 record. They cheered when the former "Apprentice" host waved a Terrible Towel (the team's rally charm) and claimed Ben Roethlisberger as a personal friend. But those cheers quieted down mighty fast over the weeks that followed, as the Steelers lost four games in a row and the "#TrumpCurse" hashtag trended. The bad mojo appeared to spread to the Steelers' archenemy, as well; Patriots manager Bill Belichick, a personal friend of Trump's, wrote him a personal letter, which the divisive politician read publicly just before election night. The seemingly political move wasn't appreciated by the team, and it apparently showed. As Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sportswriter Ray Fittipaldo gloated on X (formerly Twitter): "The Patriots are 0-1 since Belichick wrote a letter to Trump."

This happened 27 days ago. The Steelers haven't won a single game since and have been outscored 78-48. pic.twitter.com/5s3TWCOJbR

— The Pickle (@sportspickle) November 6, 2016

But in the end, the Steelers suffered most: They had a fantastic 9-game comeback which took them to the Super Bowl, but they lost to the Patriots. Fans probably wish Trump had been wearing a Tom Brady jersey that night. 

Despite Donald Trump's claim he destroyed Taylor Swift's career simply by telling his followers he despised her, he nevertheless showed support for her main squeeze's team. Right before Super Bowl LXI, he told Fox News (per Forbes), "I have to go with Kansas City" over the Philadelphia Eagles as his pick for the title. He had a couple of reasons for his choice. For one, Trump has a controversial history with the Eagles. Back in 2018, after having won Super Bowl LII, the team turned down the traditional invite to the White House because they were asked to agree to stand at attention when the national anthem was played. (This was in the midst of the Colin Kaepernick controversy, you may recall.) 

Rather than accept a smaller group of attendees, Trump canceled the event altogether. Knowing Trump's fragile ego, being snubbed by all those champs must have stung. The president also has an apparent fan in Brittany Mahomes, wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. While Brittany has never directly come out as a Trump supporter, the president has interpreted her likes of his Instagram posts as such. On Truth Social, per X, Trump raved, "I want to thank beautiful Brittany Mahomes for so strongly defending me...What a great couple — See you both at the Super Bowl!"

In February 2025, Trump made history by being the first president ever to attend a Super Bowl in person, along with his three oldest children and their families. The Chiefs got crushed 40-22, but hey, at least the first family had good seats to see it happen.

Just a week after his Superdome appearance, President Trump headed east to Florida for another major sporting event. Trump's attendance at the Daytona 500 proved how far First Lady Melania Trump has drifted from her husband's first term in office; back in 2020, she accompanied Trump to the NASCAR event, but this time she was a no-show. Son Eric Trump and his family came along instead, and we hope they brought their umbrellas.

Enjoying one of the perks of the office, the president led the first two laps of the race in "The Beast" presidential limo. Maybe that wasn't such a great move; shortly after the car left the track, it began to pour. The race had to be paused not once, but twice, for a total of more than three and a half hours. This was apparently too long for Trump to wait; he left the stadium long before the checkered flag came down.

It seems February 2025 wasn't a good month to be a team with the president's blessing. The week after the soggy Daytona race, the final match of the NHL 4 Nations Face Off tournament saw Team USA taking on Team Canada. Trump sent an encouraging message on Truth Social, saying in part (via X): "I'll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State." He went on to invite the outgoing Canadian prime minister to join him at a viewing of the game, despite the fact Trump took credit for Justin Trudeau's resignation from office weeks earlier.

Maybe Trudeau should have taken him up on the offer. Team Canada emerged victorious with a 3-2 score in overtime, leading to plenty of online razzing. "Does this mean the United States will become the 11th province of Canada?" wondered one X commenter. Suggested another, "At this point, teams should start politely declining his endorsements."

The Florida Panthers' 2024 Stanley Cup win should have been called the Miracle on Ice, Part II. They had won the first three games of the series against the Edmonton Oilers and seemed poised to make it a sweep in the fourth. Then Donald Trump put in his two cents on Truth Social (per The Spun): "Wow, the Florida Panthers are a fantastic Ice Hockey Team," he um, truthed, adding his hope the "very impressive" team would win that night. Alas, not only did the Panthers suffer a crushing 8-1 defeat, the Oilers also went on to take the next two, forcing a tie-breaking seventh game. Florida squeaked out a 2-1 victory to take the title, but not before the then-presidential candidate took a ribbing from X users. "There's some alternate universe where he realizes the pattern, and tries to endorse Biden," joked a commenter.

The president apparently opted to keep his support quiet the following year, when the Panthers and Oilers faced off for their second consecutive Stanley Cup finals. Florida won in a less nail-biting 4-2 series. We're not saying there's any connection between Trump's silence and the Panthers' victory, but we're not not saying it, either.

Hockey wasn't the only sport on Donald Trump's mind in February 2025 — or the only one he may have cursed. The famously golf-loving president tried to negotiate a merger between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf Series, which have been divided for years and forced top players to take sides. Speaking to the press after the meeting, Trump praised his good friend Tiger Woods, with whom he'd played a round recently. "I think he's got a couple of majors yet. ...maybe more than that," promised the president (per The Independent). 

Whoops. Just weeks later, Woods tore his Achilles tendon during training, ending his shot at a sixth Masters title. He was expected to return to competition later in the year or in early 2026, but this might serve as a cautionary tale for other linksmen: Don't ask for an endorsement from a president with a reputation for cheating on the golf course.

As of this writing, the Los Angeles Dodgers were comfortably on top of the American League West standings for 2025, but fans were getting nervous there for a while. The team was invited to the White House that April to celebrate their World Series win the previous season, and their game proceeded to fall apart right after the D.C. visit. Shohei Otani, seen here, gave a particularly miserable performance, and fans once again wondered if his handshake with the president made his bat go cold. Trump also brought Ohtani to the Oval Office for a private photo op, which only ramped up the speculation. Sportscaster and Trump critic Keith Olbermann quipped on X, "Breaking: Ohtani shakes hands with Trump; Value of his Dodger Contract drops $300,000,000." Plenty of LA fans agreed. "Donald Trump broke the economy and the Dodgers," sighed a supporter. 

Apparently, the Trump Curse doesn't work in reverse. That 2024 Series took place just days before the presidential election, and one Kamala Harris supporter pointed out, "When the Dodgers last won the World Series, Donald Trump was defeated days later." As we now know, history proved otherwise.