President Donald Trump saw himself as the "Wrestlemania of politics" during his campaign run, according to one of his former aides.
Nunberg was recently asked about what it was like working with the president during his campaign, according to The Ringer.
The former aide said Trump lives like a pro athlete and is adding some showmanship to the White House as a "man’s man."
"These guys haven’t made money on microchips or stocks," Nunberg said of today’s pro athletes, according to The Ringer. "They don’t want to hang out with Mark Zuckerberg. Trump’s a man’s man."
"We were the Wrestlemania of politics," Nunberg added regarding how the president and his team viewed themselves throughout the campaign. "There was something smashmouth about our campaign, something grandiose."
In Trump’s book, "Think BIG and Kick A** in Business and Life," he wrote: "One of the things I love about sports is you see in a very small period of time whether an athlete folds or thrives under pressure."
"Lions in the jungle kill for food, but humans kill for fun," Trump wrote in "Think BIG." "Even your friends are out to get you: they want your job, they want your house, they want your money, they want your wife, and they even want your dog. Those are your friends; your enemies are even worse!"
Trump's preoccupation with winning "big league" could also be traced back to his love of sports as child.
"Even then Trump was thinking about winning," The Ringer's Bryan Curtis wrote. "As biographer Michael D’Antonio noted, Trump’s baseball heroics at the New York Military Academy — where he’d been sent by his father, Fred — got him mentioned in a local paper. If Trump’s life has been an endless pursuit of publicity, this clipping is Rosebud. 'It was the first time I was ever in the newspaper,' Trump said. 'I thought it was amazing.'"
Trump counts some pro athletes, coaches, and team owners as personal friends — such as New England Patriots star Tom Brady and team owner Robert Kraft.
According to Nunberg, Trump sent Brady a congratulatory note after the quarterback defended himself at a Deflategate presser.
“Tom Brady is a great friend of mine,” Trump has said, according to The Ringer.
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