TUSCALOOSA, AL — In the heart of the South — in the left ventricle of college football — there are three things people here care about most: God, SEC football and Donald Trump. And not necessarily in that order.
But at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night, on the University of Alabama quads during the day and ESPN’s College GameDay set that morning, something was missing. Maybe it’s just that the football seemed to mean more than usual. No. 4 Alabama was hosting No. 2 University of Georgia in a September battle that would establish the hierarchy of college football dynasties for months to come.
But over the course of dozens of interviews Saturday, there was a common feeling. Ask these people about their excitement over Trump coming to the game, and you’re often greeted with a physical reaction: a shrug.
No, these people aren’t voting for Kamala Harris. Yes, the vast majority are solidly with the former president. And yet, where there once would have been a fever that Trump was in attendance, like the fever the crowd caught in 2019 when Trump last came to an Alabama game, hardly anyone was running a temperature. Just over a month before Election Day, Trump’s presence here is less exciting for these fans than Nick Saban showing up.
I’m an Auburn guy. (And I was even wearing an Auburn hat most of the day.) But I came to Tuscaloosa — about two hours south of my hometown — because I wanted to know if Georgia fans were offended that Trump seemed to be rooting for Alabama. No one really cared about that. What I found, however, was perhaps more interesting: No one seemed to care that Trump was coming to the game at all.
I, of course, can’t speak for everyone. Of the 101,821 people in attendance for Saturday night’s game, I only talked to a few dozen, even though I observed thousands more throughout a day that had me awake for about 24 hours straight.
On a scale of the Trumpiest places on earth, an Alabama football game is about a nine — just below a Trump rally. And throughout a day-long search for Trump super fans, I’m telling you that the former president seemed to be beside the point.
How much the apparent apathy will matter is the real question. An excited Trump vote counts just as much as a reluctant one. But the lack of fervor here seems notable. It can matter with donations and volunteering and get-out-the-vote operations. It could be a sign of Trump fatigue, even among his most devoted admirers. And it was surprising.
At least, I thought it was.
Not only did the fans themselves not find it interesting that Trump would be at the game, they didn’t find it interesting that no one seemed to find it interesting. For them, it was just another Alabama gameday — only with more security.
“It makes it harder to get in,” Ryder, a senior at UGA who plans to vote for Trump this year, said of Trump’s attendance. “That’s about it. Football will football.”
“It feels like there’s more security already, even though we haven’t been to the stadium yet,” Nick Waller, an Alabama junior from the Boston area, told me. Waller noted that he’s experienced plenty of big games during his time in Tuscaloosa. “Aside from that, it feels relatively the same as the other great games,” he said.
Before Saturday even arrived, some students and fans were a bit concerned Trump’s attendance could put unnecessary pressure on the players. “It was like they were a little bit annoyed that Trump was coming,” Dr. Enrijeta Shino, an assistant professor of political science at the university, said of her students.
“It is a very important game for them and for the team,” Shino told me.
President @realdonaldtrump on the jumbotron at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Alabama 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3WoG5VvYQP
— Margo Martin (@margommartin) September 29, 2024
In a game that had everything — a blowout, a comeback, and a nerve-racking Alabama win that was only secured in the final minute — Trump’s presence, ultimately, was more of a footnote than a feature.
That isn’t to say his presence meant nothing. During the second quarter, with the Crimson Tide up 28-0, the moment I — but apparently only a few others — had been waiting for finally came.
“Please bring your attention to the video boards,” the announcer blared over the loudspeaker. “We’re joined by the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump.”
There was a definite roar from the crowd. And the only thing that seemed to tame the cheer was a “U-S-A” chant that stepped on the cries of elation.
“They won’t show this on the news tomorrow,” the fan next to me screamed, directly into my ear. I still barely heard him.
And yet, those cheers still paled in comparison to a number of plays during the game. The stadium truly trembled upon the first strike of the matchup, when Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe hurdled into the endzone on a QB draw. The same could be said for Milroe’s 75-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ryan Williams, when the Crimson Tide took back the lead with just over two minutes left. Or when freshman cornerback Zabien Brown intercepted a pass in the Alabama endzone to seal the game with 43 seconds left on the clock.
Of course, don’t tell any of that to Trump. During a halftime interview with Clay Travis, Trump apparently felt like he was the main attraction.
“There’s never been energy like there is now,” Trump said from his box. “And I guess it’s me, but you know what it is? It’s also, when you look at what’s happened to our country — our country is going bad.”
Trump showing up to an Alabama football game may not have been controversial, but it was perilous. Trump has always seemed to be a bit of an Alabama fan. (Trump would be the first to tell you he likes winners.)
But rooting against Georgia, which is a crucial swing state, in favor of Alabama, which is solidly going for Trump, could be a dubious political move.
Luckily for Trump, he seemed to skirt questions about his allegiance. He kept up appearances that he was merely rooting for a good game. He invited known Georgia fans like Herschel Walker — the former UGA Heisman Trophy winner and now failed Senate candidate — and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to be in his box, alongside Alabama fans like Sens. Katie Britt (of Alabama, naturally) and Steve Daines (of Montana, curiously). He even wore a red tie that was perfectly split between “Crimson Flame” and “Bulldog Red.”
The most notable manifestation of Trump’s appearance may have been with the College GameDay signs.
“THEYRE EATING DAWGS IN TUSCALOOSA” one sign claimed, with the face of comedian and Trump impressionist Shane Gillis plastered on it. (“They’re eating the Dawgs” was actually a common button and sticker worn around Tuscaloosa on Saturday.) Another sign just showed Trump wearing an Alabama hat that was photoshopped onto him. Another — a large white banner — waded deeper into the politics of the moment: “#DeportTheDawgs! They’re safer in Springfield, Ohio.”
Trump’s controversial rhetoric on Haitian immigrants seems to be playing as a joke in the heart of Trump country. It’s being met neither seriously, nor literally. But people here also aren’t offended by it either. It’s just another that’s Trump for ya moment.
In the same way that Trump is getting a pass for falsely accusing Haitians of abducting and eating pets, Georgia fans were ready to give him a pass if he wanted to root for Alabama.
“Really, I don’t think that’d bother me at all,” Tim, a technician from the same town as Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, told me. Whatever team Trump supported, he and his wife, Danielle, knew who they’d vote for in November.
“I’m a hardcore Georgia fan,” Tim noted. But, he said, Trump has “gotta do what he’s gotta do.”
Rep. Austin Scott, who has a Georgia district that stretches from the Florida border all the way up to Milledgeville, told me he was just glad “President Trump is red, white and blue and understands what a good SEC football game is.”
Ryder, the UGA senior who said “football will football,” had a similar standard by which he measured the former president: “As long as he supports SEC football, I don’t really give a shit,” he said.
Ryder’s childhood friend, Tommy, who’s a senior at Alabama, had a slightly different but still easily attainable standard: “As long as he puts on an America hat, that’s all I care about.”
Before the game, Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson told me he thought it was actually smart politics for Trump to go to Bryant-Denny in Alabama rather than Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.
“He’s doing something that’s sort of unorthodox by going to a non-battleground state to try to appeal to battleground voters,” Johnson said.
If Trump went to Sanford, plenty of people would cheer for him. But Johnson also said he might “definitely be met with some boos.” (There were some boos Saturday night too.)
While Trump seemed to stay publicly neutral, Alabama fans were also ready to excuse Trump if he had to diplomatically cheer for Georgia.
“We’ll give him a pass and let him root for Georgia, because we certainly want to see that turned back around,” Sen. Britt, who graduated from Alabama, told me days before the game.
Alabama Rep. Jerry Carl didn’t think there was anything to Trump coming to Bryant-Denny over Sanford.
“I guarantee you, if it was in Athens, he’d go to Athens,” Carl said. “He’s obviously after the traffic.”
The Trump campaign actually looked at Athens, but that appears to be off the table after the Alabama visit, according to a person familiar with the situation. Apparently, going to two Georgia games in one season, both before Election Day, would be too obsequious for Trump.
Tuscaloosa also provided an element of certainty. Alabama is the Deep South’s reddest state. Trump won by 25% here in 2020. It’s home to Britt, a rising star in the GOP, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, whose loyalty to Trump was key to his Senate victory in 2020. Both appeared alongside Trump at the game. (As the source pointed out, Georgia doesn’t have a Republican of corresponding rank to welcome Trump to Athens.)
Clarke County, Georgia — home of the Dawgs — was a stronghold for President Joe Biden in 2020, with Biden winning over 70% of the vote there. That’s a sharp contrast from the results in Tuscaloosa County, where Trump won 57% of the vote.
Unfortunately for Trump, according to the fans on the ground, few seemed to be paying enough attention to even associate his visit with electoral matters. Even the fans who loudly proclaimed their early morning drunken adoration for him said it wouldn’t get them any closer to filling out a ballot if they weren’t already planning to.
“At the end of the day, your vote ain’t gonna count. My vote ain’t gonna count. His vote ain’t gonna count,” one Alabama fan, Chuck, told me, a beer in each hand.
His friend Connor jumped in. “At the end of the day, it comes down to the electoral college,” Connor said, matter-of-factly.
Still, the Trump campaign seemed more than happy with the former president’s appearance. His aides and allies have pushed out several videos of Trump — of him walking through the stadium, of him tossing out boxes of chicken fingers and of him meeting in his box with various political figures and celebrities. (Kid Rock and Hank Williams Jr. both sat with Trump.)
But if Trump was trying to reach new voters, he didn’t really accomplish that. ABC, the network with the broadcasting rights to the game, only showed Trump’s entrance. They mentioned the tightened security, but seemed to forget about him for the remainder of the game.
On Saturday night, Alabama trumped all. Even the man himself.
After a very late night and just a few hours of sleep, I woke up to a phone call. A Democratic strategist in Georgia wanted to hear about the game. I relayed what I saw: the apathy, the indifference and a crazy night of scoring.
The strategist thought it was notable that there was some detachment about Trump. If the enthusiasm is muted there, of all places, even a little bit — if the passion isn’t what it was eight years ago when it carried Trump to the White House, or even four years ago when he narrowly lost — it’s significant.
“The energy behind Trump is finally dying,” he told me. “Trump fever has broken.”
—
Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.