WASHINGTON ‒ Donald Trump suddenly upended his foreign policy on Ukraine, and he faces a potential government shutdown next week, but the president wouldn't miss what's on his calendar next: attending the Ryder Cup.

When Trump arrives in Long Island, New York, on Sept. 26 for the opening day of the storied biennial competition between the top American and European golfers, it will be just the latest marquee sporting event that America's No. 1 sports fan has attended.

For Trump ‒ an avid golf follower, former team captain on his high school's baseball team and onetime owner of a football team ‒ sports fandom is nothing new. Yet the number of sporting events the 79-year-old Republican attended during his second term has been nothing short of historic for a U.S. president, even eclipsing the pace from his first White House term.

It comes as Trump has used the power of the presidency to interject himself in sports debates like no president before him, from working to overhaul the NIL system in college athletics and advocating that Pete Rose and Roger Clemens be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, to demanding the NFL's Washington Commanders go back to its old name.

"He's always sort of been obsessed, as tons of Americans are, with competition and with sports," said Clay Travis, founder of the conservative sports and politics website Outkick and a Trump supporter. "And I think what you're seeing now is just a reflection of much of what you've seen for his entire life. And I think it's one reason he connects so well with people."

Unlike the friend or family member who sticks out for pretending to be a sports expert, Travis said Trump is "naturally conversant" about sports. He said it reinforces the authenticity that Trump's supporters see in him.

"It's like speaking a foreign language. You're either fluent or you're not. And I think Trump is fluent in sports," Travis said.

Two weeks into his second White House term, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. He followed it up the next weekend with a lap in his presidential limousine around the track at Daytona International Speedway before the Daytona 500.

He's hardly slowed down since.

In his first eight months back in office, Trump has attended the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia, a LIV Golf tournament at his own Doral Golf Club in Miami, a FIFA Club World Cup soccer match in New Jersey, multiple UFC fights and the U.S. Open Men's Final tennis match in New York City. Most recently, he commemorated the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by watching the New York Yankees play the Detroit Tigers from a box in Yankee Stadium.

"Sports is part of his DNA," former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer said of the president’s regular trips to sporting events. "He really didn't do much of it his first term, but now he is. I think that's because he's got such a command of the office, such a confidence that he knows that he can go and enjoy the trappings of the office a little bit more."

A long history of presidents and sports, but nothing like Trump

Trump's showman side has long drawn him to major events and spectacles. In the 1980s, he often held boxing matches at his casinos and would often sit ringside as the likes of Mike Tyson won their fights.

Yet there's also some political strategy at play, according to Adam Burns, author of "Sports and the American Presidency: From Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump.” It's a way to be seen with the best of the best, flex that he's back in the White House, project values of fitness and masculinity (even if he's not a world-class athlete himself), and connect to Americans by sharing the spotlight at the events they love.

"It makes you that 'every man,'" said Burns, head of politics at Brighton College in the United Kingdom. "Being seen being vigorous but at the same time being somebody who people can relate to ‒ a sports fan."

Trump is far from the first president to lean into sports. William Howard Taft was the first president to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game in 1910 and, as legend had it, helped popularize the seventh-inning stretch.

Richard Nixon, in 1969, anointed the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns the college football national champions from the team's locker room after watching them beat No. 2-ranked University of Arkansas. George W. Bush famously threw a strike down the middle when he attended Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium weeks after 9/11. Barack Obama started a tradition of releasing his own March Madness brackets at the start of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

But Trump's sports appearances are far more frequent than those of any of his predecessors. "I don't think anybody's gotten anywhere close to attending pretty much everything that's going (like Trump)," Burns said. "He's come out of the gate doing the presidency how he wanted to do it the first time."

If 2025 was an action-packed sports year for Trump, just wait until 2026.

That's when 11 U.S. cities in June will play host to the world's most-watched sporting event, the FIFA World Cup. Trump is also finalizing plans with UFC President Dana White to host a UFC match on the south lawn of the White House ‒ a spectacle certain to dismay Trump's foes and delight his fans. It will all coincide with Trump's yearlong celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

"Essentially, each one of these games is like a Super Bowl," Trump said of the World Cup last month, as FIFA President Gianni Infantino from the Oval Office, let the president hold the trophy that the winner will receive. "The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the largest, most complex set of events in sports history."

Two years later, Trump will be at the center of another worldwide sporting event when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Trump known to text or call after wins, golfer Scottie Scheffler says

Trump hasn't been well-received by all spectators at the events he attends. Boos and cheers could be heard at this year's U.S. Open finals match as he waved from his box. The president also got a mixed reaction when he participated in an award ceremony on the field after Chelsea beat Paris Saint-Germain at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium in July. On the other hand, Trump was cheered loudly at the Daytona 500.

During Trump's first term, he had a combative relationship with the National Football League as he called for a boycott in response to players kneeling during the national anthem. It ignited racial tensions in a league in which the majority of its players are Black. But Trump's fight with the NFL is over. The president hosted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the Oval Office in May to announce that the 2027 NFL Draft will take place on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

One sports league Trump has not embraced is the National Basketball Association, which the president has criticized as a "political organization" for taking on social justice causes.

Trump doesn't simply consume sports from the sidelines. He mingles with star athletes and coaches when games aren't happening, often inviting them to the White House.

The owner of multiple golf courses, Trump this year brought Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to the White House on Marine One after playing a round of golf. He chatted with Yankees players in their locker room before the 9/11 game. He met with football coach brothers Jim and John Harbaugh in the Oval Office. Golfer Bryson DeChambeau even got permission to hit a few wedge shots from the White House's south lawn.

"I get a call or text from him sometimes after wins," Scottie Scheffler, the world's No. 1-ranked golfer and member of the U.S. Ryder Cup Team, told reporters ahead of this week's competition. "He just loves the game of golf."

Scheffler added, "To have our president here and for us to represent the United States of America, albeit being in a golf tournament, is extremely important for us."

Even world leaders recognize Trump's fandom. When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Trump in the Oval Office in May, he brought with him two of his country's famous golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, to soften a contentious meeting. "This is tougher than sinking a three-footer,” Trump said to Els as he invited the golfer to speak.

Several star athletes joined Trump in the White House Roosevelt Room in July as he announced his administration is reviving the annual presidential fitness test. They included DeChambeau, NFL kicker Harrison Butker, former wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque, golfer Annika Sorenstam and retired Hall of Fame football linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Trump's sports knowledge was on display at the event. "He's been fantastic. When he’s not injured, he’s great. He’s got to stay healthy," Trump said of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has struggled with concussions during his career.

At times, it seemed the gathering was as much an opportunity for Trump to brush shoulders with his sports heroes as policy. "I don't know what we're supposed to be doing," Taylor said after Trump gave him the lectern. "But I'm here to serve and I'm here to serve you."

The White House is taking credit for this year's Ryder Cup even happening after Trump signed a recent executive order to try to prevent a rail strike on Long Island. The order created an emergency board to investigate disputes between the Long Island Rail Road and unions.

"This event is one of the greatest sporting events in the world and it would not be taking place this year without President Trump's help," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sept. 21.

If Trump has his way, he will also find a way to navigate the turbulent landscape of paying athletes after he signed an order in July that seeks to create a national framework for NCAA name, image and likeness programs.

There are other sports items on his to-do list as well.

Trump recently demanded Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young-winning pitcher who was linked to steroid use, be inducted into the Hall of Fame. His comments came after MLB in May reinstated the late Rose, long banned by the league over gambling, following pressure from Trump. It means Rose is now eligible for Cooperstown.

Trump might have lost his battle over the NFL's Washington Commanders' team name, however. The president, in July, threatened to block the franchise's return to a new stadium in the District of Columbia if the team didn't return to being called the Redskins. But DC's city council approved the stadium deal last week, and Trump has let go of the subject ‒ for now.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why America's No. 1 sports fan Donald Trump can't miss going to the big game

Reporting by Joey Garrison, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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