During halftime of Ohio State vs. Notre Dame, ESPN cut away from its halftime show coverage to air a video message from Trump. He made a lengthy political statement surrounding his first day in office before talking about the title game.
‘To all of the players and fans watching tonight, I know it’s been a long and difficult journey. It’s been a long season, but you have two tremendous teams, and get to the game and go out and fight hard and fight fair and let the better team win, and I’m going to enjoy watching it. Thank you and good night,’ he said.
The message, recorded earlier on Monday, aired hours after Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. On Monday night, Trump was at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., as he signed dozens of executive actions.
‘With Donald Trump’s Inauguration occurring on the day of the CFP National Championship, it makes sense to include a message from the President, a practice that occurs regularly during major sporting events – including earlier this month from President Biden before the Sugar Bowl,’ an ESPN spokesperson said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports.
ESPN referred to a message from former President Joe Biden that aired prior to the Sugar Bowl, which was postponed a day after a man killed 14 people and injured 30 more in the early hours of New Years’ Day in New Orleans – where the game was located – by driving a pickup truck through a large crowd on Bourbon Street.
Trump had previously attended the national championship game during his first term as president. He was at the 2018 College Football Playoff national championship game in Atlanta between Alabama and Georgia and the 2020 College Football Playoff title game in New Orleans between LSU and Clemson.