FULL INSPIRING ADDRESS: President Donald Trump Honors NCAA Champions at White House Ceremony | AC1E

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:03][music] Thank you very much. Some greatlooking athletes. That's I can tell you. It was great to meet you before. I hope you all got your medal. Did anybody not get the medal? No. Because uh I want to make sure. I don't want to have anybody leave unhappy. Please sit down.

[00:00:24]And no place like this, right? The White House. Coach, what do you think? Pretty good, right? I meet all these golfers over here. I said, 'What are your handicaps? Plus four. I said, ' Plus four, plus five even.

[00:00:35]That's good stuff. He actually said higher than that. I said, 'You got to be kidding me, right? That's great. Great.

[00:00:41]Congratulations. Great team. I heard about the team and I heard about all the teams this afternoon. We're joined by not one, not two, but seven collegiate championship winning teams from all across the country. Champions, every one of them. And uh these are student athletes that have demonstrated remarkable talent and discipline and were born a little bit lucky with talent because I'm not sure coach I'm not sure I look at all these great coaches that have these records 40 and one uh 37 and two pretty good records but we're talking and I guess you probably have to have a little something uh something very special because what you are and what you do is very special to the winners here today. Welcome to the White House. A very, very incredible place. I pinch myself every time I walk through the White House. I say, "This place is really something." And to have you because you're very, you know, you they'll treat you better than they treat me.

[00:01:41]They're going to treat you better than they treat me. And that's Oklahoma State Cowboys. And I just said that I won Oklahoma 77 out of 77 counties. Second was Ronald Reagan. So, I'm very proud of that. It's Somehow they liked me in Oklahoma. I don't know what that is. Sit down, coach. Great job. The incredible team showcased consistency, grit, and precision all season long, led by head coach [snorts] Alan Bratton. Allan, unbelievable. The Cowboys dominated throughout the spring, capturing multiple victories before securing their 12th national title. Amazing. They have made Oklahoma State very proud and it's a great school and it's a great great sports school too with some unbelievable champions and teams and you're right at the top. Congratulations. It's great.

[00:02:28]I'll have to play golf with you guys some. I'm I'm going to try giving you a match. I think it's going to be tough.

[00:02:32]This one I don't This is a match I'm not looking forward to. And anytime you're around, you let us know. Okay. We'll let you go over to the place I told you about. Special place on the Ptoac River.

[00:02:42]Okay. Joining us as well are the 2025 NCA women's volleyball champions, the Texas&M Aggies.

[00:02:52]Thank you. Good. Stand up.

[00:02:58]I watch when I watch television, I watch the level of talent. It's actually incredible. And you're the best of the best. So that's an amazing thing. And from the opening serve to the final point of the national championship, the Aggies played with heart and determination. Everybody here played with heart and determination. Really?

[00:03:17]They dominated the tournament, sweeping top- seated Kentucky to claim Why were they top- seated? What's going on?

[00:03:23]What's going on? I don't like that.

[00:03:25][laughter] To claim the program's first ever national title. Kindle Stowers was an offensive powerhouse. Where's Kindle?

[00:03:35]We're really Are you a powerhouse? Yes, I can tell you you you are indeed a real powerhouse and champion. And senior opposite hitter Logan Le Nikki delivered 11 kills against Kentucky. Where's Logan? Congratulations. So, how tall are you, Logan?

[00:03:55]>> 63.

[00:03:56]>> Wow, that's pretty good, let me tell you. But I want to congratulate what?

[00:04:01]Great athletes. Thank you very much.

[00:04:03]Great athletes. Please. Also in the winner circle, we have the 2025 NCAA men's tennis champions, the Wake Forest Demon Deakons. And Arnold Palmer was a great friend of mine and a slightly different sport.

[00:04:21]How's your golf team doing?

[00:04:23]>> I don't know. Pretty good, right?

[00:04:25]They're pretty good, too. Uh but they battled through the fierce postseason to claim their second national title. DK Sesh delivered the clinching point to seal a 4-2 victory over TCU in the final. And I want to congratulate you and I see you right there. I said, "Who's the best player to the team?" And they all pointed to him, right? So congratulations. And uh that's really incredible, DK, what you've done. You had a great year. You all had a great year. Thank you very much. Good.

[00:04:56]You know, Arnold Palmer was a great friend of mine. I got to know him toward the end of his life. He was an unbelievable champion. Went to that school, right? He went to that special school and he used to love it and it's known for that. It's uh it really was something. I've been there. Up next are the 2025 NCA Women's Tennis Champions, the Georgia Bulldogs, who just captured their third national title. Stand up, please.

[00:05:24]Great.

[00:05:27]Sophia Roas sealed this team's incredible victory, losing a first set before roaring back to dominate the next two and clinch Georgia's sweep over the team from Texas A&M. And all I can say is go Bulldogs. It's a great state. I love that state. Did very well there, too, in the election. You know, I only like the states that I win. So, it's one of those. But, uh, thank you very much.

[00:05:50]Congratulations. That's really fantastic. What a great job. That's not easy. Winning in tennis, that's a that's a tough thing to do. I play tennis a little bit. Not quite at that level. Not quite, but that's a great thing.

[00:06:02]Congratulations. Thank you very much for being here.

[00:06:05]>> Thank you.

[00:06:05]>> Thank you. [applause] Also with us are the 2025 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Champions.

[00:06:12]They gave me a beautiful jacket. The Youngstown State Penguins. You know, the jacket's been gone over. Where are you?

[00:06:21]The jacket's been x-rayed. gone over by Secret Service at a level that doesn't look the same. It just doesn't. They've gone over it to uh levels that you wouldn't believe. But I want to thank you very much. It's beautiful. The team rolled their way into history with the program's first ever national title.

[00:06:38]Wow. Senior Madison Marks. Where's Madison? Congratulations. That's incredible. Was unstoppable in the finals and was named the first team all-American. And that's a big thing to be named first team all-American. So, what would you average in bowling?

[00:06:54]Madison, >> I ended my college career at 208 average.

[00:06:58]>> 208. That's fantastic, man. That's great. So, congratulations. It's not easy bowling. I've tried it. It doesn't work too well for me. It's very difficult. Actually, it's very difficult. And it's supposed to be one of the best teams in many years beyond everything else. So, thank you very much. Congratulations for being here at the White House. Thank you.

[00:07:20]And we're also proud to recognize the 2025 NCAA Women's Soccer Champions, the Florida State Seinals. They just clinched their fifth national title and back-to-back championships for the second time in the program history.

[00:07:33]That's amazing. Sophomore midfielder Pton McGovern had an impressive season.

[00:07:39]Where's Payton? Payton, where are you, Pton? That's great, huh? Are you that good? Are you going to turn pro?

[00:07:46]>> I think so. I think you will have a feeling finding herself in the starting lineup for 18 games. It was ultimately named the 2025 all tournament team and senior defender Claire Rain earned her second national title playing with FSU.

[00:08:03]And congratulations to all of you.

[00:08:05]Congratulations. That's a fantastic job.

[00:08:07]Thank you very much. Really amazing.

[00:08:12]It's a great great school. Finally, we have the 2025 National Collegiate Mixed Rifle Champions, the West Virginia Mountaineers.

[00:08:21]51 points, Susie, we dominated West Virginia. Maybe even more than you. Dominated the rifle world, coach. I don't know. But we uh I love that state. That state is the greatest. It's such an incredible group of people. And think of it, for their 20th National Shooting Title, and the coach was there for all of them or most of them. All of them. Just about all of them. Uh, that's amazing. And I just want to congratulate you. West Virginia is a great It's a great place. It's a great state. So many friends there. We We've been there a lot. You know, when you win it by 45 points or something like that, maybe more. You like to sort of say, "I love that state." And they like me, I guess. I can't imagine why, but for you to win, that's I know how difficult it is. So, congratulations to all very much.

[00:09:14]This was the school's record as the number one most winning program in collegiate rifle history. So, you have the number one school in rifle history.

[00:09:22]Congratulations. It's an amazing amazing accomplishment. So, college sports are among America's most cherished institutions. A tradition where lessons learned on the playing field shape the character of winners. And you are winners. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. The [snorts] athletes here today represent the very best of that grit and determination and teamwork.

[00:09:43]That's why under my administration, we're fighting hard to save college sports. What's happening is crazy.

[00:09:52]It's crazy.

[00:09:55]And what we want to do is help athletes or like all of you in this room. And as soon as I took office, I ended a terrible injustice and banned men from competing in women's sports. I don't know if anybody agrees. Does anybody agree with that that uh men should be able to play in women's sports? Would you like to raise your hand? Don't feel Don't Well, so far I haven't never found anybody. But they say it's an 8020 issue, but I've never been able to find anybody. So I think it's a 99 to1. Maybe it's a little bit more than that, coach.

[00:10:27]Right. Maybe it's 100 to nothing.

[00:10:30]I campaigned on that one all the time. I say there will be no men and women sports and people would go crazy. But uh but I mean it but you're politically correct. So earlier this month, I signed an executive order to implement a number of key reforms protecting programs like yours, which don't [snorts] always get the top headlines, but are crucial to strengthening uh years and years of education and sports and the ability to compete and to win, which we need very much. We have we now have thanks to a wonderful decision in the Supreme Court.

[00:11:03]We're a country that's again based on merit. In other words, if you're the best shooter, you're the best shooter.

[00:11:08]If you're the best golfer, you're the best golfer. And all of these things are very important to stop the pay for play schemes that only benefit the largest programs. We will only allow one no penalty transfer through the transfer portal. I think most of the people here know what that means.

[00:11:27]uh where you had some people going to three four different it's like they became like uh monopoly players and to ensure room for the uh new talent. We're also instituting a 5-year eligibility cap for college players because students right out of high school should not have to compete against players that are 28 or 29 years old who decide they can make more money staying in college than they can by going into the professional leagues, which is pretty ridiculous.

[00:11:56]It's a very uh very precarious position that the courts have left us in because we had great college sports and the person a judge decided who was not a person that knew much about sports actually I think knew nothing about sports decided that the whole thing was unconstitutional for over a hundred years they developed these programs a lot of scholarships a lot of great things happening and now it's a total and complete mess but we're going to get it fixed up and uh we've had some fantastic people doing it. So, we need now uh Congress to act to clear up the confusion created by the courts and institute permanent reforms to protect college sports at every level and uh especially some sports. And frankly, you know, a lot of the emphasis is put on football, but football's now uh destroying the colleges economically because they're being paid so much at the colleges are losing so much money.

[00:12:52]It's not sustainable. So, in recent weeks, the White House has convened many of the most respected sports figures and commissioners in the nation. We had all of them here, just about all of the top people, 64 of them, including Nick Sabin, one of the greatest coaches ever.

[00:13:09]Randy Lavine, the head of the New York Yankees. Bryson Dshambo, a rather good golfer. What's he pretty good coach?

[00:13:15]He'd make your team even, right? I don't know. That's a pretty good team. He will make your team. Tim Thibo, wonderful guy. Charlie Ward, Adam Silver, this incredible group developed a strong set of recommendations and my administration is committed to working with Congress to get them through. I signed an executive order instituting those recommendations and it's going to clean it up a long way. It's going to take it a long way.

[00:13:40]75% of Olympians competing for Team USA played as college athletes. If you don't if we don't straighten out this, we're not going to have much of an Olympic team because you have so many of these sports, especially certain sports where it's like the minor leagues. You could call it the major leagues. You could call it whatever you want, but we train unbelievable athletes to go in and win the gold medal. And without college sports, without your ability to go into college sports and compete and learn really how to play and get better, we're not going to have much of an Olympic team anymore. Many of America's greatest CEOs and entrepreneurs learned discipline, courage, and drive through playing sports in college. And I I loved sports. I mean, I I was so helped in my life by sports. Saving this tradition is not only a matter of fairness and sportsmanship. It's a matter of national pride and national greatness. Indeed, all of you have battled your way to the absolute top in sports. And now you have a administration that's fighting just as hard for you as you fight for our country. And you have fought for our country. So I want to congratulate you.

[00:14:46]You know, you're a group of real champions. I know what it is to win in sports. And win in life, but to win in sports is uh I always say it's a microcosm of life. The beautiful thing, you know, in two hours or you know in a season how you are in life sometimes you have to go a lot of years before you can figure it out. But I have to say you are unbelievable champions. I admire and respect all of you and it's an honor to have you in the White House and you'll come back and who knows someday you might one of you or two of you or three of you Susie what do you think might come back as me. You don't want that. I don't think you want that. I don't think it's not worth it. But uh it's an honor to have you here and congratulations.

[00:15:27]And here we have some beautiful trophies as you see. And uh we're going to be giving things out and we're going to be seeing maybe some of you later. You're going to hang around and enjoy the White House for a little bit. And thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it.

[00:15:39]Thank you very much everybody.

[00:15:43][music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat.