Pat McAfee Fires Back at Criticism for Sitting Next to President Trump

Once again under fire for interacting with President Donald Trump, Pat McAfee issued a statement about his experience at the 2026 Patriot Games final on Tuesday night.

“Had a BLAST celebrating high schoolers from across the country with the Heads of Disney, ABC, ESPN, and… The United States Of America I’m proud of all parties getting behind this important initiative to keep future generations excited about remaining active. Cheers to the incredible contestants and to next year’s Patriot Games,” posted McAfee on X (formerly Twitter).

However, after still receiving hate for being pictured sitting next to Trump and being seen stalking the controversial president’s hand, McAfee had more to say. In fact, he even responded to one post accusing him of using the “n word” behind his ESPN GameDay colleague Desmond Howard’s back simply based on an association with Trump.

“This is grotesque… and potentially lawsuit worthy.. we’ll have the lawyers look into that next week after The Diary Of A Polarizing Figure drops FRIDAY,” McAfee replied. 

He also fired back at someone suggesting he should be canceled by the public in this manner: “Promoting American High Schoolers being active and competitive and potentially winning life changing scholarship money alongside my business partners at Disney/ABC/ESPN..”

This isn’t the first time McAfee has been criticized for doing something with Trump. McAfee had Trump on his show on Veteran’s Day in 2025, mostly discussing sports topics like NIL in college athletics.

“I would like to say, though, for the immediate people that are mad about that happening, it’s the President of the United States. It’s Veterans Day. He’s the Commander-in-Chief. Obviously, if we have the opportunity to talk to him, we’re going to. And he is hilarious,” said McAfee at the time.

Find more coverage of Pat McAfee at WV Sports Now.