President Donald Trump is taking a break from testing the limits of the U.S. Constitution to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, making him the first sitting president to watch the big game up close.
For its part, the NFL is getting ready for Trump’s attendance, beefing up security protocols ahead of the game after a terrorist attack in New Orleans last month.
On Tuesday, the 47th president and WWE Hall of Famer declined to weigh in on who he thought would lift the Lombardi trophy, but he gave a nod to the reigning champs.
“I don’t want to say but there’s a certain quarterback that seems to be a pretty good winner,” Trump told reporters after signing an executive order withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
With the president seemingly ready to cheer on the boys from Arrowhead, it’s worth taking a look back at Trump’s storied relationship with the football powerhouse and its personalities.
Travis Kelce (and Taylor Swift)
3-time Super Bowl champion, “Saturday Night Live” host and Chiefs star Travis Kelce has a complicated relationship with Trump, to say the least. Kelce largely avoids politics but did appear in a pro-COVID-19 vaccine commercial for Pfizer in 2023, enraging anti-vax members of the MAGA faithful.
Kelce’s girlfriend and superstar Chiefs fan Taylor Swift has twice endorsed Trump’s challengers in presidential elections and spoken out in support of progressive social issues. Her support of former Vice President Kamala Harris last year earned a hateful, all-caps callout from Trump on Truth Social.
Kelce and Swift were at the heart of a Trumpworld conspiracy theory last year when conservative media figures suggested the couple would endorse Joe Biden from the field after Super Bowl LVIII.
Ever the diplomat, the KC tight end told reporters it would be “a great honor” to play with the president in attendance.
“It’s a great honor, I think – you know, no matter who the president is – I know I’m excited because it’s the biggest game of my life,” Kelce said. “And having the president there – it’s the best country in the world – and that’s pretty cool.”
Patrick and Brittany Mahomes
Like his teammate, Patrick Mahomes has never endorsed or condemned the president, though he did say it would be “cool” to play in front of Trump.
The Chiefs quarterback was the subject of Trump’s latest flubbed anecdote earlier this week. Trump falsely credited Senator Tommy Tuberville, R.-Ala., with coaching Mahomes in college at Texas Tech. There was just one problem with the claim: Mahomes and Tuberville’s tenures with the Red Raiders never overlapped. Tuberville left the team in 2012, and Mahomes played his first game for the school in 2014.
Tuberville clarified in an interview with Megyn Kelly that he “recruited” Mahomes but didn’t coach him, a claim which faced further revision from the all-star himself.
“He did not recruit me at the time,” Mahomes shared with Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Gabriela Carroll. “I don’t remember if I ever got to meet him or not.”
Mahomes declined to weigh in on Trump ahead of the election last year, but his wife Brittany Mahomes stirred controversy with a click.
In August, social media detectives noticed Brittany Mahomes had liked – and later un-liked – one of Trump’s campaign posts on Instagram. While the move was from an endorsement, that didn’t stop then-candidate Trump from taking it as one. The hard-campaigning Trump went on Fox News to claim one of the league’s most visible WAGs was “a big Trump fan.”
Patrick Mahomes brushed off Trump’s claim that his wife was a MAGA die-hard in a news conference last September.
“In these political times, people are going to use stuff here and there,” Mahomes told reporters. “But I can’t let that affect how I go about my business every single day and live my life and try to live it to the best of my ability.”
That gentle brush-off didn’t keep Trump from congratulating the couple on Thursday after the birth of their youngest daughter.
“Congratulations to the Chiefs’ GREAT Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and his very beautiful and BRILLIANT wife, Brittany, on the birth of their new baby daughter, Golden Raye,” he wrote in a post to Truth Social. “It’s happy times in the wonderful Mahomes family. See you all on Sunday!”
Harrison Butker
Kicker Harrison Butker is the most likely member of the Chiefs to have read the Project 2025 playbook.
Butker made headlines last summer for delivering a fire-and-brimstone commencement address at Benedictine College that many labeled misogynistic, antisemitic and homophobic.
He later endorsed Trump as the most “pro-life” choice for president in September, days after speaking at a rally for far-right Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
“I’m supporting the president that’s going to be the most pro-life president, and I think Donald Trump is the most pro-life president,” Butker told Laura Ingraham on Fox News last year. “That’s a topic that is the most crucial topic for me. I want us to be fighting for the most vulnerable, fighting for the unborn, and that’s what we should prioritize.”
Andy Reid
Politics aside, the Chiefs’ long-time head coach Andy Reid is ready to visit the Trump White House if his team wins.
Reid, who has led the Chiefs to a 15-2 record this season, visited former President Joe Biden in the White House twice, claiming then that he would do the same regardless of the president’s party.
“You know, you put all the politics aside. You’re not Democratic. You’re not Republican. You’re not Independent. You’re just, you’re an American,” Reid said on visiting the White House in 2023.
Reid was slated to visit Trump in the White House in 2020 following his first championship win with the Chiefs, but COVID-19 scrapped that trip.
The Hunt Family
Though Trump is reportedly floating axing special tax breaks for sports team owners that could hit Chiefs owner Clark Hunt right in the pocketbook, his family members have shown support for the two-time president.
His daughter, Gracie Hunt, said the president’s messages to the Chiefs were “pretty cool” and “pretty awesome” in a Wednesday appearance on Riley Gaines’ “Gaines for Girls” podcast. She went on to defend Butker’s controversial comments that she says were motivated by his faith.
“Harrison [Butker] is an amazing guy, and the most kind, genuine person,” the younger Hunt said. “He is an awesome family man, they’re so sweet and precious… Harrison and his boldness in his faith encourages other guys to be bold in their faith.”
Go Birds?
Whether Trump and the Chiefs are rooting for each other or not, there’s no love lost between POTUS and the Eagles. In 2018, Trump disinvited the then-Super Bowl champs because a handful of players signaled their intentions to stay home.
“The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event,” Trump tweeted at the time. “Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!”
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