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Even without the advanced calculus of Q scores and the politics of sneaker deals, athletes’ visits to the Trump White House were always going to be strained. 

Elite athletes got where they are via a lifetime of sacrifice, watching what they eat, training endlessly and forgoing fun for the sake of imperceptible improvements day after day. In the president, they meet their exact opposite: a real-estate scion who has been consumed by his immediate desires for his entire life. You didn’t need to see that infamous photo of Donald Trump standing behind a mountain of Big Macs with the National Champion Clemson Tigers to perceive the massive gulf between the way Trevor Lawrence and Trump view the world, but it definitely put a fine point on it.

The Trump era overall has been defined by its excesses. The blatant, open corruption of Trump’s crypto-trading and gift jets overshadow smaller moments of vanity and greed. The administration is run through with opportunists from insider trading in the upper levels of the Trump Organization on down to its prop-betting teleprompter operator. Everywhere you look, Trump is reaching out his grubby, short fingers to take anything he can grab from the office of the presidency. At the same time, he’s gilded the White House in an attempt to hastily build a legacy that will cover for seven decades of endless taking.

It should come as no surprise that the watchword of Trump’s second term has been “more.” His second trip to the White House has brought along more graft, more racialized violence and more war. Trump spent the early months of his second term grousing over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. On Thursday, he promised ever-more extensive bombing campaigns against Iran, despite a tentative ceasefire agreement that was signed last month. 

“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” Trump told Axios. “They haven’t received enough pain yet.”

Later that day, Trump once again joked(?) about running for an unconstitutional third term. Promoting the profusion of frequently unwelcome data centers across the United States, Trump groused that he still wasn’t getting enough credit for his agenda.

“All I know is I’d like to be the next president,” he said. “I’m going to make somebody look very good.”

Trump showed his great works to the Los Angeles Dodgers later on Thursday, during a team visit to the White House. Standing next to owner Mark Walter and the Commissioner’s Trophy, Trump pointed out his planned helipad and ballroom before bragging about the extra stuffing of the Rose Garden’s seat cushions. 

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