WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his call for Congress to pass legislation that would rein in college sports at a time athletes are allowed to move freely from school to school and command salaries that put athletic departments in financial peril.
Trump's remarks came at a White House event honoring some 100 athletes from seven teams that won NCAA championships in 2025.
Trump this month signed an executive order that would limit eligibility to five years, allow one transfer without penalty for undergraduates, stop pay-for-play schemes and build in protections for women's and Olympic sports.
Aspects of the executive order might not withstand legal scrutiny, which is why Trump and some college sports stakeholders are asking for federal legislation that would codify restrictions and grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption to enforce rules.
Dozens of athletes have challenged NCAA eligibility rules with the hope of extending their college careers and, in turn, their ability to earn money through name, image and likeness deals. He said it's unfair for athletes right out of high school to compete against 28- or 29-year-olds.
“It’s a very precarious position the courts have left us in," Trump said, adding that the 2025 settlement of House v. the NCAA created a professional model that has led to financial instability for colleges. “And now it’s a total and complete mess. But we’re going to get it fixed up and we’ve got fantastic people doing it. So we need now Congress to act to clear up the confusion created by the courts and institute permanent reforms to protect college sports at every level, especially some sports.”
The national championship teams honored were Oklahoma State in men's golf, Texas A&M in women's volleyball, Wake Forest in men's tennis, Georgia in women's tennis, Youngstown State in women's bowling, Florida State in women's soccer and West Virginia in mixed rifle.
“Seventy-five percent of Olympians competing for Team USA played as college athletes," Trump said. “If we don’t straighten out this, we’re not going to have much of an Olympic team because you have so many of these sports, especially certain sports where it’s like the minor leagues, call it the major leagues, whatever you want. But we've trained unbelievable athletes to go in and win the gold medal. Without college sports and without your ability to go into college sports and compete and learn how to play and get better, we’re not going to have much of an Olympic team anymore.”
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
President Donald Trump speaks during an event for NCAA national champions in the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event for NCAA national champions in the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
SAN SALVADOR (AP) — Prosecutors in El Salvador opened a massive, joint trial of nearly 500 alleged members of the MS-13 gang on charges that include homicide, extortion and arms trafficking.
The trial, which opened Monday in San Salvador, is the latest in a practice that has been criticized by human rights groups as an infringement on the right of the accused to defend themselves. Such trials form part of President Nayib Bukele's iron-fist approach against criminal groups in El Salvador, which has been under a state of emergency for four years to fight organized crime.
“These mass trials lack basic guarantees of due process and thus they increase the risk of convicting innocent people who have nothing to do with the gangs that have terrorized the country for decades,” Juan Pappier, Americas deputy director for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press.
The 486 defendants are accused of being members of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, and accused of ordering more than 47,000 crimes from 2012 to 2022, according to the Salvadoran government. The charges also include femicide and enforced disappearances.
"For years, this structure has operated systematically, causing fear and mourning among Salvadoran families,” Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado said on social media.
El Salvador once had one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with 103 killings per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015. Since Bukele took office in 2019, government statistics show a drastic drop in that number. But human rights groups say Bukele's approach has violated due process.
Mass trials “raise serious questions about compliance with due process guarantees, including the right to an individualized defense, the presumption of innocence and access to adequate legal representation,” Irene Cuéllar, researcher for Central America at Amnesty International, said Tuesday in a statement.
The gang leaders are being tried in an open hearing at an Organized Crime Court under a 2023 reform of El Salvador’s penal code.
The country's “state of exception" since March 2022 has suspended fundamental rights, including the right to be informed of the reasons for detention and the right to legal counsel. Security forces can also intercept telecommunications without a court order, and detention without a preliminary hearing is extended from 72 hours to 15 days.
In a statement Tuesday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it “maintains serious worries about the impact on human rights by the unjustified and excessive prolongation of the state of exception in El Salvador” and called on the government to end the measure.
Of the defendants, 413 are being held at the Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison that Bukele ordered built that has become a symbol of his controversial security policies. Many defendants watched the proceedings virtually from the prison.
Another 73 alleged gang members are being prosecuted in absentia, according to the Attorney General's office.
In March 2025, in the first such collective trial, 52 members of the Barrio 18 gang were sentenced to prison, with the longest sentence amounting to 245 years.
In another collective trial in November 2025, a court found 45 members of a rival faction, Barrio 18 Sureños, guilty of several crimes and handed down a 397-year prison sentence to one leader.
Since the state of emergency began, authorities say they have arrested 91,300 people allegedly belonging or tied to gangs.
Human rights organizations say thousands have been arbitrarily detained and that they have registered more than 6,000 complaints filed by victims under the state of emergency. At least 500 people have died in state custody.
Bukele has acknowledged that at least 8,000 innocent people were arrested under the measure and have since been released.
"Justice is not only about punishing those responsible," said Cuéllar of Amnesty International. “It is also about protecting innocent people from being wrongly accused or convicted.”
Associated Press reporter Anna-Catherine Brigida reported from Mexico City.
FILE - The Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) stands in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)
