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Chris Cillizza, a native of Marlborough, explores these stories and more in his new book "Power Players: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency," which uses the sports background of every president since Eisenhower to explore how it shaped their presidency.
"Sports is a window into their personalities," Cillizza, who wrote about politics for CNN and now has a Substack, said. "It shows us who they were and their approach their governance."
Bush grew up in a competitive family in Greenwich. His mom was an avid tennis player who valued sportsmanship. Cillizza believes this led to Bush not taking enough credit as president for his administration's accomplishments, much to his political detriment.
"He didn't like to toot his own horn," Cillizza said. "There's a reason why his presidential rankings have improved since he left office. People look at his record and realized he did do a lot of things."
At Yale, Bush was a light-hitting slick fielder who was part of a ceremony honoring Ruth weeks before he died. Bush's competitive streak instilled by his family carried over with him to the White House.
"He had a competitive horseshoe tournament twice a year with the standing members of the White House," Cillizza said. "He used to compete with his grandkids to see who could fall asleep first."
Despite his athletic prowess, Bush was often characterized as a wimp. Cillizza believes Bush just didn't like talking about his background.
"Other than Gerald Ford, he was probably our most athletic president," Cillizza said. "I just don't think he did a good job of touting himself. He was raised to be deferential and to not make about it himself. For whatever reason, people saw that as weak."
Donald Trump is the only president to also be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and was involved in several wrestling storylines.
"To understand professional wrestling is to understand Donald Trump," Cillizza said.
Cillizza said Trump learned from WWE CEO Vince McMahon that people like to see things in black and white, with good guys and bad guys, which heavily influenced his campaign and presidency.
"He understands that you give someone to root for and give someone to root against," Cillizza said. "The Muslim travel ban and saying Mexico is sending rapists is right out of the Vince McMahon playbook. You just appeal to the lowest common denominator because that's what people respond to."
Professional wrestling storylines often featured bad guys representing the Soviet Union, Iran or whatever America's current enemy was.
"They were playing on our fears," Cillizza said. "Trump did a really good job of doing that. He's very brash and in your face."
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