A magazine profile on one of Donald Trump’s key goons has unearthed an embarrassing incident from the president’s past involving a wrestler.
Linda McMahon, the former professional wrestling executive who serves as education secretary, is the subject of an extensive profile in The New Yorker.
The piece dives into the history between Trump, 79, a longtime fan of wrestling, and McMahon, 77, and her ex-husband Vince, 80. The McMahons founded the lucrative World Wrestling Entertainment brand, or WWE, and Trump inserted himself into their orbit.
During the late 1980s, Trump hosted unsuccessful WrestleMania IV and V events at his Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.
Wrestler Bret Hart, known as The Hitman, wrestled for WWE, then known as WWF, in the ’80s and ’90s, and told The New Yorker about a time Trump, who was sitting near the ring, almost fell out of his chair when Hart appeared to crack his face on a metal turnbuckle.
“He believed it,” Hart said of Trump, who had grown up watching wrestling. “He couldn’t believe I didn’t get killed.”
Professional wrestling relies on heavily choreographed stunts as part of the illusion, while theatrical scripts create a hero and villain for maximum crowd entertainment.
Hart has previously discussed Trump’s astonishment at the incident, which took place in WrestleMania IV’s battle royal in 1988, when Trump would have been 42.
“He watched me take a very hard front turnbuckle bump and it seemed to stun him that I wasn’t seriously hurt,” he told Forbes in 2017.
Hart also recalled the maneuver to Inside the Ropes last month, saying, “When you watch it you can see Donald Trump just about falls off his chair, and I know that it kind of impressed him... it stood out in his mind.”
The New Yorker profile discusses how Trump “courted” the McMahons, including inviting them to a Rolling Stones concert so he could spend time with “the greatest promoter in the world”—meaning Vince McMahon.
The piece says Trump was “fascinated” by McMahon, who was a regular onstage character with WWE. During one wrestling scene where Vince’s limousine exploded in what was clearly a staged stunt, Trump “reportedly called the office to check that Vince was O.K.”
Prior to becoming president, Trump made many appearances at WWE events over the years, including a showdown to launch Wrestlemania XXIII’s “Hair vs Hair” match in 2007.
Trump had been cast as a recurring WWE character by Vince McMahon, with their feud billed as the Battle of the Billionaires, where they would delegate wrestlers to fight for them. The WWE arranged for money to fall from the roof when Trump came on stage, but “fans were slow to take to him.”
During the eventual billionaires’ showdown, Trump won, and McMahon had to shave his head. Both men made $5 million from the match, to be donated to charity. The New Yorker states the McMahons donated $5 million to The Donald J. Trump Foundation.
Trump was later inducted into the celebrity section of WWE’s Hall of Fame.
The McMahon profile also includes another telling nugget from Trump’s past. As a child, Trump’s favorite wrestler was Antonino Rocca, who died in 1977. However, Trump called him “Rocky Antonino”. The profile says when Trump’s classmates tried to correct him, “he insisted that he was right.”
Vince McMahon has vehemently denied sexual assault and trafficking allegations which were brought against him by former employee Janel Grant in 2024, labeling the lawsuit “replete with lies” and a “vindictive distortion of the truth.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
