President Donald Trump groused that the college football national title game was trying to intercept his time in the headlines ahead of his inauguration last year, according to a scene from the “Melania” documentary film.
The scene, which sports site Awful Announcing highlighted after a clip from the film made the rounds on social media this month, shows Trump and the first lady go over plans for the inauguration when he stops to remark on the College Football Playoff National Championship, which was set for Jan. 20, 2025.
“We are competing with the championship game. How did that happen?” asked Trump, who recently claimed he has “a lot of good friends” in college football in the same interview where he fumbled questions on the sport.
The title game, which typically takes place on a Monday night in early to mid-January, happened to fall on the same day that the president was set to take the oath of office.
The date of the game was announced back in May 2023, a time Trump was leading a crowded field of GOP candidates and over a year removed from the Republican Party selecting him as the nominee for president.
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The “Melania” scene continued to show Trump contending that presidents “always had” Inauguration Day for “hundreds of years” when an aide, who appears to be his event producer Justin Caporale, tells him off camera that he’s unsure why the game was scheduled that night.
(Note: In 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to take the oath of office in January following the ratification of the U.S. Constitution’s 20th Amendment. Before that, inaugurations were regularly held in March, with the notable exception being George Washington’s swearing-in back in 1789.)
“So they put a game—” Trump told the aide as he and the first lady went over the day’s schedule.
“We’re working extremely closely with the networks,” the aide replied.
“I know, but why did they have to put the national championship at the same time?” Trump asked.
“Unclear,” the aide responded.
“They probably did it on purpose,” he concluded.
