ESPN host Pat McAfee had President Donald Trump make a guest appearance for his Veterans Day episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” an act that unsurprisingly did not go over well with some of his viewers.
McAfee conducted an interview with Trump via phone from Parris Island, South Carolina Tuesday, where the two spoke about the meaning of the day for Trump as well as topics like golf, sports generally, and the government shutdown.
The following day, McAfee addressed those who took issue with the conversation.
“In my eyes, he’s the leader of the military, and we were celebrating the hell out of Veterans Day,” McAfee said.
“If you’re against what happened yesterday, I’d like to say you hate the troops,” he added.
“And you should go ahead and swallow that and you can take that to where you want to go,” the host continued. “Any president, willing to come on our Veterans Day celebration spotlight show — commander-in-chief, head of military — we would be very open to it… future presidents, you will always be welcome.”
Pat McAfee fires back at liberals upset that he had President Trump on his Veterans Day show on ESPN at Parris Island 🔥
“In my eyes, he’s the leader of the military, and we were celebrating the hell out of Veterans Day… So if you’re against what happened yesterday, I would… pic.twitter.com/kXPHx5Svj6
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) November 12, 2025
It’s another reminder how much culture has shifted in Trump’s favor that McAfee conducted an interview with him and then was unapologetic about it to the naysayers.
Do you watch ESPN?
Numerous public figures would avoid giving the impression that they would even give Trump the time of day during his first term.
Despite being head of the executive branch, for media personalities like McAfee, he was treated like a pariah at best.
Invocations of Trump from 2016-2020 could also involve moral posturing for said personalities to prove they were “one of the good ones.”
In October 2016, rapper Eminem released the track “Campaign Speech,” where he took aim at then-candidate Trump.
Star athletes like LeBron James had no shortage of chastising comments for the president, either in his first four years. Trump was branded a “so-called president” in 2017 after the events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, when violence erupted between crowds of demonstrators.
To be sure, there is no shortage of Trump hatred now, but his supporters are louder than before.
They are firing back without fear of repercussions.
Public support for the president — oddly — may have landed one without a job or fleeing the leftist Twitter mob during his first term.
The atmosphere now is markedly different — so different that Trump is rightly welcome on ESPN.
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