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By Darlene Superville
July 25, 2025 — 11.57am
Washington: One was a businessman turned reality TV star who was twice-elected president. The other was a professional wrestler who became politically active later in life.
Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan’s paths first crossed at a wrestling event in the late 1980s at one of Trump’s Atlantic City, New Jersey, hotels. The meeting kicked off a more than three-decade long friendship, marked by their career parallels: both were ’80s celebrities who found greater fame in the world of reality television before wielding their influence in politics.
Just over a year before his death on Thursday, Hogan delivered a rousing speech at the Republican National Convention in July 2024 in Milwaukee during which he dramatically ripped off his T-shirt — to reveal another one bearing the Trump-Vance campaign logo — and endorsed his “hero,” Trump.
Hulk Hogan rips his shirt and pumps up the crowd at a campaign rally for Donald Trump before the 2024 US election.Credit: AP
Hogan said he was motivated by the attempted assassination of Trump days earlier in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“What happened last week, when they took a shot at my hero, and they tried to kill the next president of the United States, enough was enough, and I said: ‘Let Trumpamania run wild brother. Let Trumpamania rule again, let Trumpamania make America great again,” Hogan said.
On Thursday, Trump mourned his “strong, tough, smart” friend, who died of a heart attack in Clearwater, Florida. He was 71.
“We lost a great friend today, the ‘Hulkster.’ Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart,” Trump wrote on his social media site, using the acronym for his ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign slogan.
“He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week,” Trump said. “He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive.”
Trump offered warm wishes and love to Hogan’s widow, Sky, and said he “will be greatly missed.”
The official White House account on X shared a photo of a suited Trump and Hogan, wearing a Trump-Vance campaign T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, with their arms clasped as if they were wrestling. The caption said, “Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!” and included a red heart emoji.
Trump has enjoyed a long association with professional wrestling and its top officials, including husband and wife duo of Vince and Linda McMahon, the founders of World Wrestling Entertainment. Linda McMahon served Trump in both of his administrations and is currently education secretary after heading up the Small Business Administration in his first term.
In 2013, Trump was inducted into the celebrity wing of WWE’s Hall of Fame.
In Milwaukee, Hogan talked about how he had known Trump for more than 35 years and had won wrestling’s world title as the future president sat ringside during a WrestleMania event at Trump Plaza hotel in Atlantic City.
“I was bleeding like a pig and I won the world title right in front of Donald J. Trump and, you know something, he’s going to win in November,” Hogan said at the convention.
Hogan also addressed thousands at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden last October.
After Trump was re-elected, Hogan was among supporters at Trump’s victory rally on the eve of the presidential inauguration in January.
Fan backlash?
In January, Hogan joined other wrestling greats for the launch of WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, on Netflix and streamed live.
The LA Times reported that while the crowd was warm towards stars such as Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and John Cena, Hogan’s appearance was “met with overwhelming boos”.
While speculation on social media suggested the reaction was driven by his association with Trump, the masthead noted that other stars such as The Undertaker, who hosted Trump on his podcast, and Levesque and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, who were at Trump’s New Year’s Eve party, “were both cheered loudly”.
Instead, it pointed to the 2015 scandal that erupted when a 2007 recording emerged of Hogan using a racial slur in reference to his daughter’s then-boyfriend. Hogan’s contract was suspended, and he was briefly removed from the WWE Hall of Fame, before being reinstated in 2018 when he apologised. Despite this, he was loudly booed when he next appeared at a live wrestling event in 2021.
As that was playing out, Hogan was also involved in a long-running court case against the Gawker website for publishing a sex tape of Hogan with his friend’s wife. In 2012 Hogan sued for $US100 million claiming an invasion of privacy. In 2016, he was awarded $US140 million, later reduced to $US31 million – soon after Gawker ceased publication.
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