Trump’s unscripted football riff served as a loud reminder that his return to the White House will also mark the return of one of America’s most powerful sports fans and critics, a vocal presence who has often cast entire leagues as political opposition, cozied up to some of the world’s biggest stars, and freely sounded off on on-field issues to score points and fire up his supporters.

Now, the most sports-focused president in modern U.S. history will reclaim the Oval Office at a moment when his administration could leave its mark on some of thorniest and most polarizing sports issues. These include questions around transgender athletes, a potential stake for the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia in the PGA Tour, and even the future of college athletics, where the line between once-amateur players becoming professional employees of their schools is wafer thin.

At the same time, the country is also preparing to organize the two largest sporting events on the planet: the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. will co-host with Mexico and Canada, and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The country’s major leagues, meanwhile, are staring down the possibility that they once again could be turned into political punching bags by the nation’s highest office. 

In fact, sports and professional athletes were on Trump’s mind from the moment the election broke his way on Tuesday night. Standing behind the podium at his victory party, one of the first people he invited up on stage was two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau.

“We have to protect our super-geniuses,” Trump said. “We have up here today, the U.S. Open champion. He’s a fantastic golfer—slightly longer than me, hits the ball a little longer than me… Bryson DeChambeau.”

The golf world is of particular interest to Trump, and not just because he played hundreds of rounds during his first term. He also owns golf properties across the globe, some of which hosted tournaments for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf startup, where DeChambeau now plays. In its early days after LIV’s 2022 launch, Trump was one of the few politicians on either side of the aisle willing to support it after it faced controversy over its Saudi ties. 

But professional golf these days is in a state of disarray after the establishment PGA Tour and LIV’s Saudi backers agreed to ally, even though more than a year on they haven’t yet actually come to an agreement. And one of the issues the sides face is that any pact will be reviewed by the Department of Justice for antitrust concerns and its impact on the market. 

In that regard, some within the golf world are already optimistic that a Trump administration could help see a deal through. 

“He might be able to,” four-time major champion Rory McIlroy said this week. “But I think as the President of the United States again, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”

Except Trump’s first four years showed that might not exactly be the case. Despite the long list of issues his administration’s policies could shape, some of his most visible actions are likely to come in the form of his running commentary and involvement in sports that is unlike any other president’s.

The NFL, which has enjoyed a state of relative calm over the past four years, is intimately familiar with that. At speeches and on social media during his presidency, Trump assailed players’ national anthem protests against police brutality as unpatriotic. At one point, NFL players knelt en masse in a direct rebuke of Trump and his language, creating an extraordinary situation in which America’s most popular sport was locked in an ongoing feud with the sitting president. 

An NFL spokesman declined to comment on Trump’s election.

Already, Trump has tapped someone with NFL ties to his new administration. Susie Wiles, the daughter of the former kicker and late broadcasting legend Pat Summerall, will take the leap from campaign manager to White House chief of staff. 

Other leagues and even individual athletes have found themselves a public foil for the president. Women’s soccer and NBA players in particular were targeted by conservatives for their political activism, and this time around superstar LeBron James endorsed Kamala Harris just ahead of Tuesday’s election.

“When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me,” James tweeted a week ahead of the election.

One organization that has enjoyed a much smoother relationship with Trump is soccer’s world governing body, FIFA. It was during Trump’s first term that the U.S. won the right to host the next World Cup and FIFA president Gianni Infantino immediately made it his business to stay close to the White House. Over the course of roughly two years, he met with Trump in the Oval Office, sat next to him at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and visited him at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Then on Tuesday night, Infantino congratulated Trump in a post on Instagram before many outlets had even called the race.

Now, Trump will likely be the person to hand over the World Cup trophy at the final at MetLife Stadium on July 19, 2026.

“I am lucky enough in my life to come across some of the most talented athletes in soccer,” Infantino said at Davos in 2020. “And President Trump is made of the same sort of fiber…He wants to show who is the best.”