Pat McAfee responds to criticism over Patriot Games appearance with Donald Trump

Pat McAfee was a surprise guest of honor alongside President Donald Trump at the final round of the inaugural Patriot Games on Tuesday evening.

The appearance kicked off in Cleveland, where McAfee greeted Trump on the tarmac outside Air Force One and stood for a photo op. Later, McAfee joined the president for his walkout before sitting alongside him during the event.

One high school-aged boy and girl from each state and territory in the U.S. were selected to compete for $250,000 through a series of fitness and skills tests. ESPN aired the Patriot Games on its app and will broadcast an hourlong primetime special on Thursday to wrap up the competition, which was put on by the administration’s Freedom 250 initiative. Executives from the network and its parent company Disney were also in attendance alongside Trump to watch the finale.

Back on his show Wednesday, McAfee talked up the Patriot Games and defended his appearance alongside the president.

“I think this is an initiative that is going to continue. I think this is a big deal,” he said. “And anything that is going to amplify or encourage the next generation to remain active and competitive, I think that is a huge thing I will be a part of.”

McAfee said he participated in the Play 60 project while playing in the NFL, and has been a proponent of the league’s flag football push in recent years — most prominently by starring in a Super Bowl commercial in 2025.

This is not the first time McAfee has engaged with Trump during Trump’s second administration. McAfee interviewed the president live on ESPN for a Veterans Day broadcast last November, and was granted permission from Trump directly to broadcast from the White House for UFC Freedom 250 in June before instead going live from the College World Series.

While in the past McAfee struck a combative tone with his detractors, on Wednesday he acknowledged how people might be put off by his decision to join Trump.

“I do appreciate how people feel towards their politics and everything else; I do respect it,” McAfee said. “But there’s some absurd things when it’s like, it’s not just me.

“We’re trying to create something here for the next generation. We’re trying to give back from our community and our world, sports and fitness. Once this thing settles in and this Patriot Games thing goes for ten, 20 years, which I’m hoping happens no matter who’s president, I think this will be something that we look back and say, ‘This was inevitably good.'”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXScvDcCmlc

Also in the segment, McAfee turned the attention back toward the animosity he has drawn as a public figure, using the opportunity to remind his audience of his forthcoming debut as a recording artist.

“There’s a lot of people upset. Any time, obviously, you have the president doing anything, especially President Trump … any time he’s a part of something, it’s going to be very loud,” he said. “And there’s some people saying some really mean stuff to me. ‘Diary of a Polarizing Figure’ out Friday … it will address a lot of this, and it kind of is what my life is.”

McAfee added that people have said “terrible things” about his children, simply “because I want to encourage high schoolers to be (fit) and active.”

During the 2024 presidential election, McAfee said he turned down interviews with both Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, stating that he did not believe he was the right conduit for political campaigns. After Aaron Rodgers used McAfee’s show to allege that fellow Disney host Jimmy Kimmel was associated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, McAfee side-stepped politics altogether.

“I haven’t polled our crowd, but I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hang out with us to hear us talk about politics,” he said then. “I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success actually.”

Yet since that time, McAfee has routinely brought politics onto his show, both through these appearances as well as his and his guests‘ commentary.