Since returning to office last year, Donald Trump has made a concerted effort to position himself with the greatest sports stars across the United States.
He became the first sitting President in history to attend a Super Bowl last February. And among many other events, he attended the first day of the Ryder Cup just outside New York in September and mingled with the Yankees on the anniversary of 9/11. Just this week, he was at the National Championship college final between Indiana Hoosiers and Miami Hurricanes.
But while athletes have largely shown respect to Trump’s status as President, what do they actually think of the man himself? And did they vote for him?
According to a remarkable new look at voting data by VoteHub, it appears that many did not.
Using publicly available voter data from 23 states and the District of Columbia, VoteHub explained it has been able to ‘collect the party identification on 1,506 athletes across the “Big Four” (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) and the WNBA’.
The league with the most Republican support is Major League Baseball, with 53.7% of players backing Trump’s party from a sample of 434.
Donald Trump shakes hands with Yankees captain Aaron Judge on a visit to mark 9/11
Trump also became the first sitting President to attend a Super Bowl last February
There aren’t many names in the league who have publicly endorsed the president but when Trump visited the Yankees on 9/11, the locker room was full to welcome the President.
Whether that translates as voting support though, is another thing and the players may well have decided to put their own individual allegiances to one side on an emotional day in the city.
The second sport that backs Trump and the Republican party the most is hockey, with 43.9% of players out 109 sampled counting as red. There were six democrats and 50 independents who were also counted.
Perhaps surprisingly, only around a fifth – 20.2% – of NFL players out of a 752-player sample size are Republican, with 34.3% counting as Democrat.
It’s also the league where the most players have been open in their support of Trump.
Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl winner Harrison Butker has repeatedly endorsed the President, as has his teammate James Winchester. Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones also went out of his way to shake Trump’s hand before the Super Bowl last February in New Orleans, too.
San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa has also backed Trump and worked on his Council on Sports alongside other players such as Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley and Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
The league with the most anti-Trump sentiments, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the WNBA.
Trump has some famous support in the NFL from players such as Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker
The Yankees welcomed Trump on his visit but that doesn’t necessarily translate to support
The WNBA, followed by the NBA, had the most Democrat support, according to the data
Only 2.3% of players polled were Republican while a massive 67.5% were Democrat and supported Kamala Harris at the November 2024 election. VoteHub said they had 43 WNBA players in their sample.
Harris won about 60% of the vote with black women at the polls and the majority of WNBA players are black. And across the WNBA, there are several examples of players supporting liberal causes and Democratic candidates.
One recent example is the New York Liberty’s Natasha Cloud endorsing the new socialist mayor in the Big Apple, Zohran Mamdani.
The findings in the WNBA are echoed in the NBA survery, albeit to a lesser degree in the men’s game.
Out of 170 players, there were 73 Democrats coming in at 42.9% of the survey. There were only 17 Republicans, ranking at 10%.
