--- title: Donald Trump Congratulates "Friend" Tom Brady description: Shortly before pledging his GOP loyalty, Donald Trump had another announcement—this one for the New England Patriots quarterback. canonical: https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-03T20:48:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:41:16.771Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Congratulates 'Friend' Tom Brady on Beating Suspension og:description: An appeal to New England voters? og:url: https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Congratulates 'Friend' Tom Brady on Beating Suspension twitter:description: An appeal to New England voters? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Donald Trump Congratulates 'Friend' Tom Brady ## Video: Know Right Now: Tom Brady Avoids NFL Suspension [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Tom Brady Avoids NFL Suspension](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/miZs5BCm.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2015-09-03. A judge ruled that Tom Brady would not be suspended from four games following the Deflategate scandal_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 3, 2015 8:48 PM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 3, 2015 8:48 PM UTC Shortly before [pledging his GOP loyalty](http://time.com/4021474/donald-trump-republican-loyalty/?xid=homepage), Donald Trump had another announcement—this one for the New England Patriots’ [quarterback](http://time.com/4021556/tom-brady-deflategate-suspension-salary/): > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/639480265841225729) A federal court [overturned the NFL’s four-game suspension](http://time.com/4021458/tom-brady-decision/) of the Patriots’ star Thursday morning. Trump had urged Brady to sue the league for $250 million in May. Trump’s support of Brady could be a subtle effort to [appeal to New Hampshire voters](http://time.com/4016510/donald-trump-new-hampshire-republican/). The real estate mogul led Republicans in the state with 35% support in August, according to a [Public Policy Polling snapshot](http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/08/ppps-new-new-hampshire-poll-finds-donald-trump-in-the-strongest-position-of-any-poll-weve-done-anywhere-since-he-entered-the.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Congratulates 'Friend' Tom Brady","datePublished":"2015-09-03T20:48:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:41:16.771Z","description":"An appeal to New England voters?","url":"https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Tom Brady","deflategate"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/","name":"Donald Trump Congratulates 'Friend' Tom Brady"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Tom Brady Avoids NFL Suspension","description":"A judge ruled that Tom Brady would not be suspended from four games following the Deflategate scandal","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/miZs5BCm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-03T16:34:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/miZs5BCm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/","duration":"PT1M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4022134/donald-trump-tom-brady/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```