President Donald Trump delivered a hard-to-watch speech as he honored the Indiana Hoosiers’ college football National Championship victory.
They won the playoff final back in January, but were bathed in springtime D.C. sunshine as a breathy Trump, 79, proceeded to forget who their coach was, called him lucky, said he wouldn’t mention the players who weren’t MAGA, and assumed none of them had a clue about politics.
Coach Curt Cignetti had been introduced by the stage announcer immediately after Trump as the two men walked up onto the podium together.
After talking about primary elections and the war in Iran, Trump finally stumbled onto the topic of the football team standing behind him.
“The national signing day, think of this, the press conference in 2023, shortly after joining Indiana. Curt—” over Trump’s left shoulder, Cignetti straightened his tie.
“Who’s Curt? Curt Cignetti. Where is Curt Cignetti?” he said, looking to his right.
The smile briefly vanished from Cignetti’s face before saying, “Right here.”
“Huh? Oh,” Trump said, yanking the coach and pulling him close. “Come here. Come here. Curt Cignetti has turned out to be, I believe, I think he’s the coach of the last decade because he took a team. Nobody knew him, nobody knew the team, and he ended up taking this team all the way. People were betting against you all the way, Curt.”
After his walk up to the stage, the president was visibly short of breath as he introduced various Cabinet members in the crowd, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
As his speech wore on, Trump heaped vague platitudes on Cignetti and his players.
“Shortly after joining Indiana, Curt was asked how he communicates his vision to recruits,” Trump said. “He said, ‘It’s pretty simple. I win. I just know how to win.’ That’s a very cocky guy, I don’t like people like that.” He put his arm around the 64-year-old and yanked him in close to him again.
He also said he was “lucky” to have won the final against the Miami Hurricanes, which he did 27-21, suggesting his plays were so unusual that if it hadn’t come off, it would have ended his career.
Several players were absent for spring training, including star quarterback Fernando Mendoza. As he praised Mendoza and other absentees, Trump checked that they were fans of his before noting he wouldn’t have mentioned them if they weren’t.
Trump also ran down one of his favored rabbit holes, honoring 22-year-old linebacker Isaiah Jones.
“I said, ‘How good is he, coach? ‘He said he can play,’” Trump said before looking over at the footballer.
“Let me see. He’s a good-looking guy. I don’t like good-looking people. I don’t like good-looking men at all, believe me. But he recorded two of Indiana’s first five sacks. Think of that. So, he had five sacks. Wow.”
Part of the presentation saw defensive back Jamari Sharpe invited up to pay tribute to Cignetti, at which point Trump initially mispronounced his name and had to be corrected by the coach.
As Sharpe wrapped up his remarks, Trump said, “He doesn’t want to leave the stage. Good looking guy, huh? Thank you. Thank you. He didn’t want to leave the stage.”
At one point, as he talked politics, he also said, “They don’t know what I’m talking about, behind me, because they’re into football.”
Trump’s performance in front of the White House comes a day after he appeared to fall asleep in the Oval Office.
At one point, during the Monday night event to further maternal health and support motherhood, he appeared to jolt awake.
When the Daily Beast contacted the White House, it was pointed to a post on X that said, “He was blinking, you absolute moron.”
On Monday, the White House finally announced when his overdue medical will take place. It was supposed to be within a year of last year’s, which was on April 11, but will now go ahead at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on May 26.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
