Former President Donald Trump could attend the Sept. 28 rivalry game between No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, according to two officials working with the campaign who cautioned the plans could change after a second apparent assassination attempt.
Trump is no stranger to the rivalry between the teams. He attended the national championship game between Georgia and Alabama in Atlanta in 2018, leaving in the second quarter before the epic (and for Georgia fans, unfortunate) game-ending play.
His attendance at that game caused a major stir. Highways from Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta to Mercedes-Benz Stadium were shut down. So was one of the four main entrances to the stadium. Trump was greeted with a boom of applause — and some boos — when he took the field for the national anthem.
The Republican nominee also visited Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2019 during Alabama’s matchup against LSU.
Officials stressed the plans are tentative and could change, particularly after the FBI said it was investigating an apparent assassination attempt Sunday on Trump at his Florida golf club. The head of the Alabama Republican Party told WBRC in Tuscaloosa that security will play a major factor in his final decision.
“I can confirm this is something Donald Trump has been thinking about, and I think this is something he would like to do - there’s just so many logistics, especially with securing a venue with a stadium that holds tens of thousands of people, can security be where it needs to be,” Wahl told the outlet.
Trump’s tentative plans to attend one of the most anticipated games of the season, first reported by political commentator Mark Halperin, serves as another reminder that football is fair game in Georgia, one of a handful of competitive states that could decide the election.
Every two years, candidates and campaigns flock to Georgia games to capitalize on the tens of thousands of voters who spend their fall Saturdays on campus to take in the Southern gridiron tradition.
In 2014, then-state Sen. Jason Carter steered his campaign bus to Jacksonville in the final weeks of his Democratic bid for governor to wade amid fellow Bulldog devotees before the chaotic Georgia-Florida grudge match.
In 2016, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush brought his “SEC selfie tour” to Georgia games in Athens and Knoxville, Tenn. during his short-lived presidential bid.
In 2018, Georgia Democrats trolled Brian Kemp — a die-hard Bulldog fan who still lives in Athens — with a banner proclaiming the Republican was secretly rooting for the hated Tennessee Volunteers.
In 2022, Georgia football icon Herschel Walker tried to channel the excitement and energy around the team into his ill-fated U.S. Senate bid.
And earlier this year, Democrats backing Vice President Kamala Harris flew a banner over UGA’s Sanford Stadium ahead of Georgia’s home opener that read: “Bulldogs — Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025.”
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