Wrestling star Hulk Hogan will speak ahead of Trump at RNC's final night
Retired American wrestling star Hulk Hogan will speak Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, ahead of a highly anticipated speech from former president Donald Trump.
MSNBC first reported Thursday morning that Hogan, who has occasionally tossed around political aspirations after retiring from wrestling in 2012, would join the lineup of convention speakers in Milwaukee. Trump is expected to accept his nomination tonight as the GOP presidential candidate facing President Joe Biden in November.
Terry Gene Bollea, far better known by his ring name Hogan, helped propel the professional wrestling promotion and media organization World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, to fame. He won six WWE championships, starred in movies and television shows and cultivated a mass of fans he dubbed his "Hulkamaniacs," according to his WWE bio.
In 2015, WWE cut ties with Hogan after audio was released of him repeatedly using a racial slur to describe a man his daughter was involved with at the time. Three years later, the company reinstated him into its Hall of Fame, saying he deserved a second chance after apologizing.
In mid-June, Hogan said in an interview with Fox News he'd be willing to enter the political arena.
"If you need a president or vice president, I'll volunteer and take this country over, and I'll rule with an iron fist," he told hosts of the show "Fox and Friends."
That wasn't the first time he's raised the idea. He was urged in 2018 to make a run for U.S. Senate in Florida, including by former Trump adviser Roger Stone. And in 1998, he famously announced he was stepping down from the world of professional wrestling to run for president, which later turned out to be a publicity stunt.
On Monday, Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida made a prescient remark to a reporter from The Hill — that Trump would make a heroic appearance at the first night of the convention following an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania over the weekend, saying, "It's gonna be Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania."
Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hulk Hogan to speak along with Trump at RNC day four in Milwaukee
