Like it or not, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of American in January 2017. The self-acclaimed real-estate tycoon and reality television star based his campaign on a wave of ‘populism’, race-baiting, bigotry and misogyny and somehow still ended up beating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
With that, Trump also became the first WWE Hall Of Famer to ascend to the highest office in the United States. Although it’s hard to tell if Trump will be a success as President (unlikely) because he has no experience in governing and little knowledge of government mixed with the impulse control of a toddler, it can’t be argued that he won the Electoral College in a near-clean sweep.
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Donald Trump’s history with the WWE began in the 80’s and culminated in his induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2013. During these years, Donald Trump has grace WWE programming a number of times including a few high-profile storylines. In this article, we look away from the spotlight and into a few aspects or facts about Donald Trump’s relationship with the WWE and the McMahon’s.
5: Trump appeared at Wrestlemania IV with a known mobster
Wrestlemania IV took place from Atlantic City and had the future 45th President of the United States in attendance in the first row on the night. However, what fans might not know is that Robert LiButti, a known associate of mafia boss John Gotti, was Trump’s guest on the night as confirmed by LiButti’s daughter.
The footage of Trump and LiButti was unearthed from WWE’s archives by journalist Mike Isikoff. It will be interesting to note that Trump denied knowing LiButti as far back as 1991 but that is clearly untrue.
On a Sidenote, LiButti apparently once threatened to CASTRATE Donald Trump for hitting on his daughter (the same daughter who confirmed Trump’s ties to her father) at the same time that he was still married to Ivana Trump.
4: Wrestlemania IV and V didn’t take place in Trump Plaza
Donald Trump’s relationship with WWE began in the 1980’s when he hosted a couple at Wrestlemanias. Contrary to popular belief, Wrestlemania 4 nd 5 didn’t take place at the ‘Trump Plaza’ even though that’s what the television coverage referred to the venue as.
The venue was actually the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall adjacent to the Trump Plaza. However, since Trump’s hotel and casino was the primary sponsor of the event, television coverage referred to the venue as the Trump Plaza.
3: Linda McMahon may be a potential pick for Donald Trump’s cabinet
The McMahon’s and Donald Trump aren’t just business associates but they’re also old friends. Like Trump, Linda McMahon also had political ambitions at a time and she ran for senate twice. However, unlike her old friend, she wasn’t successful and lost on both occasions.
Luckily for Linda, her political ambitions may get a new lease of life following Trump’s victory in the presidential election with reports stating that she is being considered by Trump to be a potential candidate for a place in his cabinet. Well, at least Trump isn’t picking Sarah Palin.
McMahon’s pro-Trump stance comes as a bit of a surprise as she said she was offended by Trump's comments on women earlier in the campaign and in an interview with Katie Couric, she called those comments "deplorable".
2: WWE stock prices plummeted after Trump ‘bought’ Raw
The June 15th, 2009 episode of Raw opened with Vincent Kennedy McMahon announcing that he’d sold Monday Night Raw which would be independently owned and operated. The new ‘fan-friendly’ owner later turned out to be ‘The Donald’ who appeared on the titantron and promised to give the crowd a lot of freebies and then announced a commercial-free episode of Raw.
To make the storyline look real, the USA Network went the whole hog and sent out a fake press release about Trump purchasing Raw. What happened after that? WWE shareholders panicked and stock prices dipped by 7% after the announcement.
The publicity stunt backfired massively but Vince continued the ruse all the way to the day of the commercial-free Raw. However, with the stock taking a hit, WWE fast-tracked the end of the angle to that very night with Vince McMahon buying back Raw from Trump for double the price he sold it for.
Needless to say, this is probably one of those ‘huge’ business deals that Trump brags about ‘bigly’.
1: The McMahon’s donated to the Trump Foundation
The Trump Foundation, by most accounts, isn’t a real charity. The Trump Foundation has also come under scrutiny after it was revealed earlier this year that Trump only put money into his charity until 2007, that too in small amounts, after which he stopped funding it completely.
Following this, the charity basically started asking for donations which it then used to make donations. Tax records from this period also show that two of these donors were Vince and Linda McMahon who gave big donations to Trump’s charity in 2007 and 2009.
These were basically payments to Trump for his part in his two biggest WWE storylines – 2007’s Battle of the Billionaires and 2009’s storyline regarding Trump ‘buying’ Raw – made through his charity. Why was the money funneled through his charity? Some are saying tax-evasion.
According to the Washington Post, the single biggest donation The Trump Foundation received from the McMahon’s was in 2007 which amounted to $4 million.
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