Former NFL star Brett Favre announced Friday he is backing President Donald Trump’s re-election, saying his vote “is for what makes this country great.”
The 51-year-old athlete wrote in a Twitter post he is voting for Trump because of his views on freedom of speech and religion as well as the Second Amendment, taxation, and law and order.
Favre’s endorsement came after he participated in a town hall event moderated by “America This Week” host Eric Bolling. Favre asked Trump for his thoughts on the NFL and NBA’s declining ratings, arguing Americans “do not want political messaging mixed with their sports.”
He asked the president: “How should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?”
“People don’t want to see all of the politics,” Trump said. “They’ve got enough politics with me and everybody else. They don’t want to see it with football and sports on Sunday, or whenever they happen to be watching.”
He went on to say athletes should “let politics remain separate” from the game, adding those who want to protest are free to do so, “but they shouldn’t be protesting on the sidelines during the football game, especially when they’re making $10 million a year for something that they’d be doing anyway for free if they weren’t in the league, in the NFL or the NBA.”
Favre is joining a long list of famous athletes and entertainers who have endorsed Trump’s re-election bid.
The president’s list of other big name backers includes rappers 50 Cent and Lil’ Wayne, Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, former Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, former NFL coach Mike Ditka, retired college football coach Bobby Bowden, former football coach Lou Holtz, former MLB all-star Johnny Damon, UFC Commissioner Dana White, “The O.C.” star Samaire Armstrong, “Cheers” actor Kirstie Alley, country singer Trace Adkins, actor Jon Voight, Christian comedian Chonda Pierce, and Newsboys lead singer Michael Tait.
In addition, rapper and actor Ice Cube has praised the Trump administration for its Platinum Plan, an initiative to invest $500 billion in black communities around the country. Cube served as an adviser to the White House.
Some black leaders — including progressive commentator Van Jones — have praised Trump for his efforts on race-related issues as well as criminal justice and police reform. Most recently, Jones lauded the president for his executive order to establish a system for tracking police misconduct, ban chokeholds in most cases, and incentivize police training following the killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.
“The executive order is a good thing, mainly because you saw the support of law enforcement there,” Jones explained in June. “There is a movement in the direction of a database for bad cops. … We have never had a federal database for bad cops. That’s why all these cops go all over the place doing bad stuff.”