Trump Jr. Hails ‘New Cultural Movement’ as Athletes Imitate ‘Trump Dance’

Donald Trump Jr. believes his father has set in motion a new cultural movement, as demonstrated by the increasing number of athletes mimicking the president-elect’s signature dance.
Trump attended UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, where he, Elon Musk, RFK Jr. and others sat ringside as reigning champion Jon Jones defended his heavyweight title before imitating the stiff, twisting dance made famous by Trump at his political rallies.
“Jon Jones, one of, if not the greatest of all time, one of the GOATS, even he was doing the Trump dance,” Trump Jr. said during an episode of his Triggered podcast, which aired on Monday.
This followed several NFL games in which players – celebrating sacks and touchdowns – also impersonated the president-elect’s dance.
“We are in the midst of a new MAGA cultural movement,” Trump Jr. said, referring to his father’s UFC appearance as well as the viral image of the president-elect’s cadre – which included his son, RFK Jr. Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson – eating McDonald’s onboard a private jet following the event.
Trump was met with loud applause upon entering the Madison Square Garden arena on Saturday, where he was led by UFC President Dana White to a front row seat.
“Even the leftist media could not say there was a single boo or negative comment in [Madison Square Garden],” Trump Jr. said. “The arena was absolutely electric.”
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communication and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek that the president’s support among fans of mixed martial arts (MMA) was evidence of how he had tapped into segments of the electorate ordinarily neglected by politicians.
“Endorsement by individuals such as Dana White and Hulk Hogan (and then Joe Rogan) coupled with Trump’s presence at UFC events and his accounts of his son Don Jr.’s love of hunting are among the ways that the former president communicates that he shares the values of a constituency that is not ordinarily the object of attention from those seeking high office in the U.S.,” Jamieson said. “Both UFC and MMA events and contact sports and hunting-related podcasts are viewed by large numbers of younger men who are a core part of the MAGA movement.”
While Trump Jr. admitted that fans of the UFC and MMA more generally were “always a conservative group,” he added that NFL players mimicking the dance was “amazing to see.”
“For the first time in a long time, it’s ok to be America First,” he said. “That was like the permission slip for so many more people.”
Former Fox host Megyn Kelly echoed these statements during her own podcast on Monday, claiming that athletes imitating the president was evidence of a cultural shift being underway.
“Trump, MAGA, being a Republican is cool now,” Kelly said. “It’s the greatest brand comeback ever. It’s cool.”
“Think about how the Democrats have been portraying Donald trump,” she added, “and now you have these NFL football players openly doing the Trump dance.”
Trump Jr.’s guest, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said that the Trump’s nine-year political career had inaugurated a “cultural divide” between those who “like sports and like winning,” and the rest of America.
“We’re right at the edge of a dramatic break with what has been a very long period of left wing values and left wing ideas,” he said, adding that leaders across the world had also bought into the appeal of the president-elect.
“I think the Trump presidency is going to be a presidency of work, and achievement, and success and prosperity,” Gingrich said. “That all leads people to decide around the world [that] they’d rather be with us than against us.”
Lawrence Grossberg, co-director of the University Program in Cultural Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a long-time scholar of American political culture, spoke to Newsweek about Trump Jr.’s claim of a cultural shift taking place. He cast doubt on the idea that this is new or solely attributable to the president-elect.
Grossberg said his research suggests that since the 1980s, conservative forces have “played a leading role” in powering America’s “cultural-political shifts,” and that this branch of U.S. politics has better understood “that culture is central to changing the political direction of the country.”
However, he said that despite the “marginalized forces” that recent conservative movements may have brought to the fore, “there is little evidence that these forces (and their related displays) are a new mainstream or speak for or to a majority of Americans.”
“It is not surprising that sports becomes a major space in which questions of masculinity and politics are being contested,” Grossberg told Newsweek. “Players doing the Trump dance? Okay. What about players “taking a knee”? Players endorse Trump. Others endorse Harris. Anyone notice Taylor Swift?”
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