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ESPN star Paul Finebaum said he ended a potential interview with President Donald Trump in 2019, before the network eventually got it before he got to sit with him.
Finebaum talked to Outkick founder Clay Travis and opened up on several topics, including his attempts to interview Trump to his ESPN show. Trump was set to perform on the LSU and Alabama game that fell, and Finebaum said he would go beyond.
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ESPN ads Paul Finebaum before 2024 SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 7, 2024. (Brett Davis/Imag images)
“Our producer said we need to do something big,” remembered Finebaum. “‘College Gameday’ should be there. Of course, our show is not ‘College Gameday.’ So I reached out to a friend of mine in DC he said, ‘You Wanana get Trump?’ I said, yes!
“I went ‘get up’ and ‘first take’ in New York two days a week. I said I should be in New York on Wednesday. He said, ‘I think we could do it in the White House on Thursday morning. Can you get there?’ I said, ‘Yes, I can get there. He texted me back and said, ‘Looking good.’
“I called my boss and they killed it.”
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President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were in the house at Bryant-Denny Stadium to see Alabama vs. LSU game on Saturday, November 9, 2019. (Personnel Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.)
Finebaum told Travis he was “destroyed” that the interview was mixed at the last second. He said he was told they were not “allowed to mix politics with sports.”
The long -time college -football analyst suggested that he be caught by the guard when college basketball analyst Andy Katz chose NCAA -Basketball tournament with President Barack Obama.
“I think the answer is pretty clear that Andy Katz went to the White House every year (for the bracket). It was a turning point,” said Finebaum. “It wasn’t about politics at all. It was just about the idea of going to the White House to interview the president of the United States. It wasn’t about politics. It was about a football match. The biggest game of the year in college football.
“I never knew exactly where ‘the’ killing button ‘came from, but it didn’t happen.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the state’s dining room in the White House, Monday 29 September 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
ESPN refused to comment.
The full conversation between Finebaum and Travis will be released on Tuesday morning.
