Carter Starocci makes his feelings known on Donald Trump’s attendance at NCAA Wrestling Championships 2025

Carter Starocci has expressed excitement over Donald Trump attending the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships in person. The event is scheduled from March 20-22, and the President is expected to attend on the last day.

Starocci is chasing a historic fifth straight national title and will be the first to do so if he wins it on Saturday in front of Trump. The four-time national champion claimed he was looking forward to seeing Trump in the stands.

“He came to nationals I believe my sophomore year and it was really cool. He’s obviously a big fan of combat sports. He’s at all the UFC events, so I think it’s good for our sport, and kind of like Gable [Steveson] said, he’s going to watch the best wrestling on earth," he said via Nittany Sports Now.

Donald Trump, who is a known fan of combat sports, was in attendance at the 2023 National Championships when he won his third NCAA title.

Starocci was a bit more outspoken about his fandom for the President, saying (via the aforementioned report):

“I like watching his interviews because he’s a big personality. He has a set of big balls. I like how his mind works. Pretty big being with him."

Carter Starocci joined Penn State in the 2020-21 season and won the NCAA title while finishing Big Ten runner-up in his rookie season. He has won two Big Ten titles and three NCAA titles since and will chase a record fifth in Indianapolis.

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"One thing I want to make sure is before I go, is that I kill all these guys" - Carter Starocci

Carter Starocci during the Penn State v Rutgers - Source: Getty

Whether Carter Starocci wins his fifth national title or not, he's bound to go down as one of the greatest collegiate wrestlers. He's the only seventh ever to win four titles and is 99-4 in his collegiate career, with two of those defeats coming from injury default out of the 2024 Big Ten Championships.

However, for Starocci, titles don't matter. He insists that he returned for the fifth year to dominate, and the only thing he wants to make sure of before bidding farewell is to "kill all these guys."

“I was talking with Coach Cael (Sanderson) about it ... it’s never about winning a national title or anything like that,” he said (via ydr.com). “For me, I just, I really enjoy competition and I’m very competitive. So, for me, just one thing I want to make sure is before I go, is that I kill all these guys.”

The 24-year-old's goal on Saturday will be to dominate, adding:

“It’s never really about the tournament, I just really love dominating and that’s a big reason why I came back this year. Obviously, last year, I was dealing with the injury and it wasn’t the way I wanted to finish up, and so now I’m looking to finish this thing off the way I intended to, healthy and in style, dominant."

Carter Starocci is fresh from leading the Nittany Lions to the Big Ten Championships and will hope to go down with the national title in Indianapolis.