Trump in the Circle: Wrestling and the battle for American masculinity

Donald Trump attended the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia .

The president was joined by Elon Musk , former wrestler turned Republican Ohio congressman Jim Jordan .

Bob Greene : Athletes shook hands with the president, posed with him for pictures and let him hold their NCAA trophies.

Greene: Trump is a wrestler's opposite in nearly every way; he's never been a serious athlete.

John Sutter : The urban-rural divide has continued to widen since Trump entered the political arena.

Trump fills that void, hollow as hollow as his platitudes may be, Sutter writes.

Trump took pains to forge an associative link between young men’s economic woes and progressive politics, he says.

Still, no one benefits when those who promote inclusiveness take it upon themselves to define masculinity with narrow parameters that shame a large number of young men. Shame drives these young men toward the praise of a hypocritical false idol, and, worse, toward “manosphere” extremism. Perhaps the wrestling world’s embrace of Trump is a metonym for our historical moment. How to positively reengage young men is the question with which America must grapple if it is going to wrest democracy from the jaws of defeat. The whistle has already been blown; the match is underway..