Donald Trump praises Penn State wrestling team, brings some wrestlers on stage during rally
The crowd at Donald Trump’s rally in State College cheered for many parts of his roughly 75-minute speech, but perhaps one of the loudest roars came when the former president invited the Penn State wrestling team on stage.
About an hour into the Republican presidential candidate’s speech, 14 current and former Nittany Lion wrestlers took the stage and shook Trump’s hand. But, even before that, the former president referred to the wrestling team several times.
“We’re getting to the end and we’re leading in all the polls, so that’s a good thing. We better keep it going like your wrestling team,” Trump said in his opening remarks, alluding to the team’s success and its penchant for finishing No. 1 in the NWCA Coaches Poll.
Penn State won the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships earlier this year, breaking the all-time NCAA Championship scoring record and setting another NCAA record with the largest-ever winning margin, beating runner-up Cornell by 100 points.
Trump told the crowd, which was a mix of college students and community members, that he wants them to be excited about the future again.
“People aren’t excited about this country very much anymore with the people we have in there. We have the worst president in the history of our country; we have the worst vice president, a grossly incompetent person, in the history of our country,” Trump said. “I’m asking you to dream big again. You’re going to dream big, just like your wrestling team dreams big.”
Trump joked that he might wrestle one of them — but said that would be an “upset” and he wasn’t going to “play that game.”
“Jim Jordan told me about you guys. … Look at those muscles all over the place,” Trump said, referencing the Ohio congressman who was four-time state champion and two-time collegiate champion.
Later as Trump was talking about how much he loves winners, he again brought up the wrestling team.
“I really respect winners. So do you. We’d like to have a couple of them leading our country, wouldn’t that be nice?” Trump said, inviting the wrestlers on stage. “But we like to have winners and we have with us a team that won like, 11 out of the last 13 national championships, and they’re the current national champion.”
He continued: “I don’t know if this platform can hold them, because that’s a lot of muscle.”
“These guys are something. Wow. That’s a lot of muscle.”
Trump welcomed the following current wrestlers: Matt Lee, Connor Mirasola, Cole Mirasola, Brock Weiss, Zack Ryder, Ty Watson, Mason Ellis, Connor Pierce, Jack Kelly, Sean Degl and Luke Lilledahl. He also invited former wrestlers Tony Bobulinski, Morgan McIntosh, Joe Lee and Zain Retherford on stage, as the crowd engaged in a “We Are” chant.
Trump mentioned his “friend” Bo Nickal, former PSU wrestler and Olympian, as well. He gave the wrestlers on stage the opportunity to speak, and Retherford stepped forward.
“It’s truly an honor to be here. Thank you for recognizing us,” said Retherford, a three-time NCAA champ and U.S. Olympian. “And Pennsylvania is a super important state, we need to win this election, and let’s Make America Great Again. Go vote.”
Trump said it was a “great honor” to have them join him and applauded their achievements and record in a competitive sport.
The former president made several references to Penn State and the wrestling team throughout the night but overall he mostly stuck to his usual talking points, hitting areas like inflation, immigration and crime, fracking and criticizing the Biden-Harris administration.
Fracking has become a major campaign issue for both Trump and Harris in Pennsylvania. Trump said if reelected, on day one he’ll end Harris’ “war on Pennsylvania energy and we will frack, frack, frack.”
“You know, that’s a big part of Pennsylvania. ... But no, (Harris is) against anything having to do with fracking. Except about a year ago, she learned that she’s going to need Pennsylvania, so she turned her (position) and she said, ‘Oh, I’d love to see people frack.’ She had no idea what it was, but ... she changed.”
Although Harris said she would ban fracking during her previous presidential run, Harris has since said she will not ban fracking if elected president in November.
Trump encouraged everyone to vote in the Nov. 5 election.
“Get everyone you know to swamp the vote. We wanna swamp ‘em, we wanna make it too big to rig,” Trump said. He has often said the 2020 election was “rigged” in favor of Democrats but there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.
This story was originally published October 26, 2024 at 10:20 PM.
