
Trump in the Circle: Wrestling and the battle for American masculinity
Every March, I tune in to the NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championships, a ritual I associate with the arrival of spring. It also reminds me of my own athletic tenure. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and started wrestling when I was five, and went on to compete at the Division I level in college.
This year's championships were compulsive viewing. Penn State's Carter Starocci became the first five-time D-I national champion, and Oklahoma State's Wyatt Hendrickson stunned Olympic champion, Gable Steveson, in the heavyweight final. Oh. And Donald Trump was there. Joining him were Elon Musk, former wrestler turned Republican Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, and other political allies.
Trump made his entrance in Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center to cheers and 'U-S-A, U-S-A' chants. He appeared after Starocci had just claimed his historic fifth title, prompting ESPN to interrupt Starocci's interview and cut to the president. As Trump waved to the crowd, I received a text from a former training partner – 'Dude, WTF' he wrote. I knew what he meant. I felt the same sinking disappointment.
Our sentiments, however, were not shared by many of the wrestlers at the tournament. Throughout the night, athletes shook hands with the president, posed with him for pictures and let him hold their NCAA trophies, obelisk-like totems that represent years of bloody sacrifice the uninitiated would be hard-pressed to fathom. On his X account, Tom Ryan, head coach at Ohio State, posted a picture of himself and Elon Musk, whom he called one of his 'favorite men'. Hendrickson celebrated his victory by firing a stout salute in Trump's direction and draping an American flag over his massive shoulders.
Two days after the tournament, Starocci joined Fox & Friends, and, despite his name being mispronounced multiple times, seemed happy to be there. Hendrickson appeared via video chat on America's Newsroom, where Fox anchor Bill Hemmer, like many others, called him 'Captain America'. Both interviews focused on wrestling and Trump in equal measure.
What do these athletes see in Trump? He is a wrestler's opposite in nearly every way. Though he has a weird habit of trying to dominate handshakes, he's never been a serious athlete, despite his boasts. His privilege has shielded him from accountability throughout his life. Among high-level wrestlers, personal accountability is a deep, almost spiritual core value. Most wrestlers never reach their athletic goals, regardless of how hard they work. I can attest that such failures are crushing. And yet, when it comes to losses, most wrestlers reject any form of excuse. Two years ago, in a bout considered one of the all-time college upsets, Matt Ramos of Purdue pinned Iowa superstar, Spencer Lee. Lee, who was injured, said in a Barstool interview, 'I saw people say I lost because I was hurt … That's not true. I got beat. I hate when people try to make excuses for me when I got outwrestled and beat.' Trump has yet to publicly concede his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
This paradox is not surprising. Many of Trump's fans voted for policies that will not benefit their lives. Their support is based on emotion, not logic. Viewed through this lens, college wrestling's embrace of Trump makes sense. Trump's antagonistic relationship with higher ed matters little when, to wrestling, he and his allies say, 'We love you, we're proud of you.'
For a sport routinely shoved to the margins, this high-profile support is significant. Penn State's Mitchell Mesenbrink said if 'you put politics aside, no matter if you're conservative or liberal … to have the president of the United States be at something we want to get people to watch … [is] really, really cool.' Wasted tax dollars notwithstanding, Mesenbrink is right. You seldom see wrestlers in a montage on Gatorade commercials. You don't hear about them inking huge corporate sponsorship deals. Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark and Michael Phelps are household names, yet a relatively small sect outside the wrestling world knows who Jordan Burroughs is. In 2016, The New Yorker published The Faces of College Wrestlers, which featured portraits taken after wrestlers had stepped off the mat. I was delighted until I read the article's comment section on Facebook. With articulate prose, people had reduced these young men to knuckle-dragging stereotypes. The phrase 'toxic masculinity' appeared multiple times.
Negative attention is nothing new for wrestling. Fifty years ago, there were more than 150 D-I wrestling programs; as of 2025, there are 79. My alma mater, Boston University, cut its program in 2014 to make space for men's lacrosse. To me, an elite urban school rejecting wrestling for a sport associated with affluence felt like a rejection of my home state, and, more broadly, of rural America.
Herein lies the other thread that tethers wrestling to Trump: while wrestling programs of all levels exist in various parts of the country, wrestling is largely associated with rural America. The urban-rural divide has continued to widen since Trump first entered the political arena. Many rural voters have voiced feelings of being unseen – or, if seen, of being scorned – by the political elite. Trump's policies do not improve life for most of his rural constituents – quite the opposite. Nonetheless, to these voters, Trump routinely says, I see you.
Democrats have struggled to find a language that engages rural America (a trend Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are trying to change). Similarly, many on the left have faltered when it comes to locating a productive language to discuss masculinity. Trump fills that void, hollow as his platitudes may be.
It took me three application cycles to gain admission to a fully funded MFA program. As rejections rolled in, I leaned on the persistence wrestling had instilled in me. My eventual acceptance letter filled me with as much joy as any win on the mat ever had. My first night on campus, an MFA colleague, referring to my identity as a straight white male, asked, 'How does it feel to be part of the problem?' The question portended a number of similar experiences. Phrases like 'toxic masculinity' and 'lit bro' were swung in my direction like a judge banging a gavel. In those moments, I wanted to turn translucent – to hold out my arms like a Da Vinci sketch and show the scar tissue and nerve damage and old surgeries and say, see?
In a guest essay for the New York Times, David J Morris laments the dearth of young men involved in the reading and writing of literature. He notes that this reality is reflected in our national politics. 'Young men who still exhibit curiosity about the world,' he writes, 'Too often seek intellectual stimulation through figures of the 'manosphere' such as Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan.'
Morris points out a number of discouraging trends. Suicide rates among young men have skyrocketed while educational statistics continue to plummet. Young men who exhibit 'traditional' masculine qualities, such as physical strength and self-reliance, are labeled 'toxic' by a culture that will just as quickly make male vulnerability the punchline of a joke. Last year, a study conducted at Dublin City University by Dr Catherine Baker, professor Debbie Ging, and Dr Maja Brandt Andreasen uncovered the alarming extent to which algorithms used by social media platforms recommend misogynistic content to young men. A 2023 study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that young men are reaching financial milestones at a slower rate than men of previous generations, while numbers among women swing in the opposite direction.
Leading up to the election, Trump took pains to forge an associative link between young men's economic woes and progressive politics; his racist and misogynistic attacks on Kamala Harris fed into a prevailing sense of anger and dissatisfaction. The irony, of course, is that Trump has a long history of relying on immigrant labor and stiffing the working class. On 13 July 2024, the attempt on Trump's life at a rally in Pennsylvania further solidified his tough-guy image. AP photographer Evan Vucci captured a photo of Trump pumping his fist like a victorious athlete as blood dripped from his ear. (Celebrations of Trump's temerity tended to ignore the fact that audience member Corey Comperatore was killed.) The president also has a strong relationship with the UFC. Last Saturday, he attended UFC 314 in Miami. For fight fans, chaos-inducing trade policies are trivial when Trump – like a Roman emperor at the Colosseum – sits among the people for a dose of cathartic violence. Is it thus surprising that Trump made significant gains among young men of all backgrounds in last year's presidential election?
Wrestling is hard, and those who excel at it deserve to be celebrated. It teaches young people how to hold themselves accountable and persevere through difficult challenges – skills that seem to be in short supply. Boys are not the lone beneficiaries. Girls' wrestling is America's fastest growing high school sport. While many figures of the 'manosphere' champion physical fitness, the wholesale conflation of fitness and toxic masculinity is a mistake. Wrestling, like any sport, has its bad actors. Still, no one benefits when those who promote inclusiveness take it upon themselves to define masculinity with narrow parameters that shame a large number of young men. Shame drives these young men toward the praise of a hypocritical false idol, and, worse, toward 'manosphere' extremism.
Perhaps the wrestling world's embrace of Trump is a metonym for our historical moment. How to positively reengage young men is the question with which America must grapple if it is going to wrest democracy from the jaws of defeat. The whistle has already been blown; the match is underway.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
Boulter makes winning start at 'special' Queen's
British number one Katie Boulter made a winning start to her singles campaign at a Queen's tournament she had always "dreamt" of playing at. The 28-year-old overcame a stern test against Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-4 in a match of twists and turns on the Andy Murray is the first time Queen's has hosted a women's tournament since 1973 and Boulter said it feels "special" to play on the grass at the iconic west London venue after years of watching the men's tournament."I came out yesterday to watch Andy get his first court [named after him], which is special in itself," she said."To get the women back here feels very special. It's actually something I dreamt of, having come here the last couple of years to watch the men play, so I'm just really grateful to be on this court."The world number 34 is one of six women bidding to become the first Briton to win the women's title at Queen's Club since Ann Jones in Raducanu takes on Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa in her first-round match on Tuesday, while wildcard Francesca Jones takes on American McCartney Heather Watson beat Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva 6-4 6-3 to set up a last-16 meeting with fourth seed Elena Rybakina. Boulter got a feel for the grass in her doubles victory alongside Raducanu on Monday but faced a tough challenge in Tomljanovic in her first singles match of the season on the navigated a tricky hold where she saw off break points before impressively breaking to love, she missed the opportunity at 5-4 to serve out the Boulter relied on her serve to get her out of trouble in the first-set tie-break, smashing a forehand winner to take the set in just over an things spiralled rapidly for Boulter in set two as she struggled to find any rhythm, falling down a double break and struggling to find the having relied so heavily on a strong serve in the first set, she double-faulted on the first point of the opening game in the decider, laying the foundations for Tomljanovic to on a run of six games without a win for Boulter, the home crowd was flat and struggled to provide the Briton with the boost she came soon after, though, as Boulter immediately broke back and rediscovered some momentum to win three games in a to-ing and fro-ing followed as neither player could hold their serve but Boulter eventually kept her calm at 4-4, holding serve before taking the match when Tomljanovic's forehand dropped will face Poland's Magdalena Frech or fifth seed Diana Shnaider in the next round.


The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
When it comes to the LA riots, not even the law seems to stop Donald Trump
There are several important things to keep in mind in relation to Donald Trump and Los Angeles. First of all, Los Angeles is what is called a 'sanctuary city' – as is my hometown of Chicago and my second hometown, New York City. These are cities that do not conduct immigration raids, nor do they conform to the latest missive from Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Second is that Trump detests LA, just as he does NYC and Chicago. These are bastions not only of the Democratic Party, but also of those who detest the Republican Party, and especially its latest iteration under Donald J Trump. For a man who has been on American TV for decades in one incarnation or another and who possesses that level of narcissism, to be loathed by the country's major cities and media outlets, is a low blow. And remember: coming down that escalator during his first campaign for POTUS, he called immigrants 'by and large rapists' – that is those capable of rape. We can assume that everyone is an aider and abettor. He and especially his special advisor, Stephen Miller, believe that immigrants – especially from what used to be called 'The Third World' – are less than human. Miller's anti-immigrant stance must make his own Yiddish-speaking ancestor turn in her grave and Trump's Bavarian roots shake a bit. But this is neither here nor there in Maga world. His supporters turned out in their droves to return 'The Donald' to the Oval Office for a second time – allowing him to continue his spree in defying the Constitution he swore to uphold. In other words, he is the president of a body of small sovereign nations which elected him to the post of running and protecting the federal government. Not to deploy the US Marines. The POTUS is not elected by the general vote, because if that were true, Hillary Clinton would have entered the White House. She beat him in that area. Trump was instead elected by the Electoral College, the number of votes assigned to each state. Trump won that. Twice. The states have enormous constitutional power, much of which has been ceded to the executive branch over the decades. The National Guard of each state is under the command of the governor of the state. The President of the United States does not interfere with the National Guard usually. The last time this was done was during the Civil Rights in the 1960s, when Lyndon Baines Johnson federalised the National Guard in the South to ensure the adherence to civil rights legislation. Donald Trump has no legal authority to nationalise the National Guard if the governor does not want him to do so. He is also prohibited from sending the United States military on to American soil under The Posse Comitatus Act. The title of the Act comes from the legal concept – a concept under which a sheriff can conscript anyone to enforce the peace. This idea was thrown out in 1878. Trump believes, nevertheless, that he can override this and do as he pleases. It may take the Supreme Court – packed with conservatives and two genuine Trump-enablers – to sort this one out. The other thing to keep in mind that the people who voted for Donald Trump voted for this: vigorous elimination of what they see as illegal immigration. First Amendment rights in relation to the protesters be damned. 'Habeas Corpus' – the right of a person to face their accusers and a bedrock of the American jurisprudence system – can go away, too. Trump feels mandated to do what he's doing and will continue to do so. It will not stop the peaceful protests, protected under the First Amendment, nor a state's right not to have federal mobilisation on its soil. Will the governor of California, Gavin Newsom – a Democrat and a potential rival of Donald Trump (don't count Trump out of trying for a third term, even though the Constitution bans him) – be placed under arrest by the guy enforcing the arrest of fruit vendors at gunpoint – a meatball named Tom Horman – who threatens to put the media-friendly governor in cuffs? Donald Trump, who has been on US television screens for over three decades, did not survive by not knowing what the people want. Even down to the possibility that a US Marine may be deployed in his or her own neighbourhood.


The Guardian
20 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ex-NBA star DeMarcus Cousins ejected after ugly fracas with fans in Puerto Rico
DeMarcus Cousins was ejected from a game in Puerto Rico on Monday night after a heated confrontation with a courtside fan and a hostile exit that nearly escalated into chaos. The 34-year-old former NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist, now playing for Mets de Guaynabo in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN), got into a verbal altercation with a fan during a timeout in the fourth quarter. Video shows Cousins grabbing his crotch at the fan, who responded by flipping him off. Cousins then appeared to slap at the man before teammates stepped in. Officials ejected Cousins, but the situation worsened as he left the court. Fans booed and threw drinks and food as Cousins shouted back and flipped his middle finger at the crowd. #BSNPR | [VÍDEO]: Así fue que comenzó la situación de Demarcus Cousins cuando un fanático comenzó a tener una discusión con el jugador desde las gradas. 🎥 @ElPodcastPPP At one point, Cousins lunged toward the stands and had to be physically restrained by teammates and security. The moment drew instant comparisons to the infamous Malice at the Palace incident in 2004, though no further violence occurred. Security eventually escorted Cousins to the locker room, soaked in beer and visibly agitated. No formal discipline had been announced as of Tuesday. BSN officials are reviewing the incident. Cousins returned to Guaynabo this season after playing in Taiwan and Mongolia. He first joined the Mets in 2023. Drafted fifth overall in 2010, Cousins was a dominant NBA big man for much of the 2010s. He averaged 19.6 points and 10.2 rebounds over 11 seasons and made four straight All-Star teams. Injuries, including a torn achilles and acl, derailed his career. His last NBA appearances came in the 2021–22 season with Denver and Milwaukee. Since then, Cousins has continued playing internationally. His return to the BSN this year was seen as a chance to revive his profile. That opportunity may now be in jeopardy. The Mets have not commented on whether Cousins will face further punishment or remain with the team. BSN president Ricardo Dalmau is expected to address the matter this week.