Donald Trump wants a "winner's evening" of sports champions and celebrities — not politicians — at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month.
"We're going to do it a little different, if it's OK," the presumptive nominee told supporters Friday at a rally in Richmond, Va.,
The New York Times reports. "I’m thinking about getting some of the great sports people who like me a lot."
Among the names Trump mentioned as supporters were NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger; NASCAR CEO Brian France, who endorsed Trump last month; and Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"Dana White, you know Dana White?" Trump asked. "UFC guy's a champion. These are champions."
Trump also told of how he wooed the support of former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight during the Hoosier State's primary last month.
The sports stars would be touted to delegates in Cleveland next month as "winners," Trump said, not "these people, these politicians who are going to get up and speak and speak and speak," the Times reports.
Trump then apparently referenced the nominating speech by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2012, according to the report. Christie had been attacked for appearing to promote himself in the speech, not Mitt Romney, the party's nominee.
"One guy spoke for, like, 45 minutes," Trump told the crowd, exaggerating somewhat, the Times reports. "He never mentioned Romney's name."
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