In August, Clay Travis launched Sport & State, which he billed as “70% sports, 15% pop culture, and 15% where politics intersects with sports.”
“Most of the politics will come from me,” Travis wrote in his first Sport & State column.
On Saturday, 100% of the politics came from President Donald Trump.
Travis previously reported Trump’s plan to attend the No. 1 Texas Longhorns’ matchup with the No. 14 Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville on Saturday afternoon.
Stephen A. Smith expressed concern that Trump would appear on ESPN’s College GameDay and “use this moment to try to push forward the Protect College Sports Act.” Trump did not appear on GameDay, but Smith’s overarching prediction came true.
Travis interviewed Trump for Sport & State at Neyland Stadium, and the controversial, bipartisan Protect College Sports Act was the first topic on deck.
Full interview with President @realDonaldTrump from Neyland Stadium. pic.twitter.com/wchzibCa9v
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2026
“We actually had 78 votes, if you can believe it,” Trump said, seemingly referencing the 74-24 procedural first vote on Sept. 15. “That’s really bipartisanship for the first time in a while. And, I mean, the alternative is just no good. You had people leaving the NFL to play, and the colleges could never have afforded it. Nobody could afford it. It was gonna be a terrible thing.”
“I think we’ve done a great job in putting it together,” Trump continued. “We have to get it voted on, and we’re counting on the House, and I think the House will come through, too.”
Travis then asked for Trump’s assessment of Texas quarterback Arch Manning.
“Well, he’s already looking really good,” Trump said. “I know the brothers, and they’re fantastic. They’re fantastic people and great quarterbacks and great football players. He’s got great genetics, I would say. If you’re gonna go for genetics, you can’t do much better, and he’s playing pretty well today.”
The interview quickly devolved into meandering territory after that, to say the least, with Travis giving Trump the floor to say whatever he wanted, facts be damned.
CLAY TRAVIS: Do you think there’s a role for you to try to broker peace between baseball owners and players to make sure we don’t have a prolonged work stoppage?
TRUMP: I’ve settled eight wars. India-Pakistan. Lots of very good wars. I’m working on Russia-Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/0TW9sMi5og
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 26, 2026
Trump left the door open to meddling in a potential MLB lockout. For some reason, Travis asked him to weigh in on the worst sports trades of all time, which led to an unnecessary Dallas Cowboys history lesson.
Then, Travis abruptly pivoted into his wish for Trump to “go into Chicago and clean it up,” giving Trump the floor to monologue about crime.
“We have the strongest, hottest country we’ve ever had economically. We have—you’ve probably heard the new numbers—21 trillion dollars being invested here,” Trump claimed, which has been repeatedly fact-checked as false.
As soon as Travis broke the news that Trump would attend Saturday’s game in Knoxville, speculation ran wild about whether or not he’d appear on GameDay. While ESPN was quick to put the kibosh on that, we should have figured that Travis would also have had the inside track on speaking with the President at some point.
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.