donald tru: Donald Trump refused to lead the line in respectful backstage gesture towards Nick Saban at UA commencement

United States President Donald Trump gave the commencement speech at the University of Alabama on Thursday. Before the event started, the president had already shown respect for former Alabama Crimson Tide HC Nick Saban and university president Stuart Bell.

A video shared on X (formerly Twitter) shows that as the men were getting ready to exit a room and head to the event, Trump let Saban and Bell go first as a sign of respect.

“After you, fellas. Anybody that won that many games should go first!” Donald Trump said.

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Donald Trump also praised Nick Saban and the job he did during his 17 years as the Crimson Tide head coach, leading the school to six national titles during his tenure. Saban won another title when he was coaching the LSU Tigers.

The president even asked for the coach to return, only to backtrack immediately and call current Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer "a good coach".

As Saban presented Trump, he was also complimentary of the president and even shared a story of a visit to the White House after Alabama had won the 2017 national title.

Thursday marked Donald Trump's first visit to Tuscaloosa since he attended a game between Alabama and Georgia on Sept. 28. On that occasion, the Crimson Tide won 41-34, something the POTUS also mentioned during his speech.

"The last time I was here, the Crimson Tide beat the Georgia Bulldogs, 41 to 33. I was here, I got to watch it. That was some game," Donald Trump said.

This is Donald Trump's first graduation speech since he took over for his second term. He is also scheduled to speak at the United States Military Academy graduation in the next few weeks.

Donald Trump meets with Saban, Tuberville over NIL

Alabama Senator and former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville met with U.S. President Trump and Nick Saban before Thursday's event at Tuscaloosa to discuss NIL regulations.

While it's unclear how the conversation went or if Tuberville has any plan, the former Tigers coach blasted the current state of NIL and the transfer portal.

In an interview on Thursday's "The Game with Ryan Fowler," Tuberville criticized the transfer portal and disclosed that he recently spoke with Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

“We do not want to turn into minor league sports. I talked to Bruce Pearl a few weeks ago, he says it’s a disaster, absolute disaster in basketball, and I’m sure it goes over into football and some of the other sports,” Tommy Tuberville said.

While it's unclear how many football players entered the transfer portal, Verbal Commits counted over 2,300 male basketball players, over 40 percent of all college basketball players. This highlights the current volume of transfers in college sports.

About the author

Allan Wolburg Robles is a College Sports journalist at Sportskeeda with over 17 years of experience in the field writing for publications including Reforma, Yahoo! OddsShark and Apuesta. Allan studied Communications at Anáhuac University, where he learned what would become the basis of a trade that was already a dream of his before starting college.

His favorite team is Army West Point as when he was young, Allan lived in West Point for a couple of years, went to pretty much every home game, a couple of Army-Navy games and even got to meet some of the players.

Allan's favorite players of all time include Tommie Frazier, who was unbelievable during the Nebraska dynasty of the early 90's. Tim Tebow was also a favorite, mainly because of his leadership skills, although he was also awesome on the football field. As a fan of defensive football, (or what's left of it), Sean Taylor could take over a game for Miami.

Allan has always considered himself a student of the game more than a fan of it. So the historical part and evolution of the game, as well as the ins and outs of what happens on the field, and being able to put it into words for the audience, are his biggest strengths.

Besides sports, Allan enjoys reading books, watching movies and spending time with his dogs.

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Edited by William Paul