Jerry Jones quoting Donald Trump was a dumb joke, just like the Dallas Cowboys
The joke was in poor taste, not the first time nor will it be the last that the owner/president/general manager of the Dallas Cowboys offered a quip that results in more disbelief laughter than genuine laughs.
On Wednesday morning at The Star in Frisco, Jerry Jones offered up his latest gem when he said, “Trump just said it ‘I’m running Venezuela.’”
At least he’s honest. Much like the President of the United States openly owning he’s in charge of a foreign country that he approved the removal of its leader, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys said what we’ve known since he fired Jimmy Johnson — he’s running the Cowboys.
Trump’s original comment was dumb, and Jerry’s citation is even dumber.
Both comments may have been said in jest, but like so much of Jerry’s handling of the Dallas Cowboys, there is a level of strain and fatigue among the fan base unlike any other point in his long tenure of the team.
“I’m beyond ego,” Jerry said Wednesday. “I don’t need another award. I want to win the football game.”
Two of these sentences sound accurate, as does the following — we are beyond bored by all of it.
The Dallas Cowboys are the joke that’s no longer funny. The TV ratings will always be there, but for the person who spends hundreds to thousands of their dollars every year to support this team, the consistency of this show now borders on a rerun. The pattern predictable. The sales pitch rhetoric inspires few. An expensive habit with a decreasing ROI.
The Cowboys have mastered the art of entertaining and interesting better than any sports franchise in the world, but there is a redundancy that to the person who spends a lot of their money on it is justifiably checked out.
On Wednesday, Jerry, coach Brian Schottenheimer and team vice president Stephen Jones addressed the media in their end-of-the-season press conference where the Good, Bad, the Ugly covered every topic save for the moon landing.
Jerry adoration of football is well documented, almost as much as his first true love — money. His love language is cash. He can speak dollars just as easily as he can speak Pesos, Pounds, Rupees and Rands. Don’t let that Arkansas twang fool anyone into thinking he needs a translator for Rubles, Yens or Yangs.
He may not be able to identify with your life, but he can grasp the universal language of spending money.
To the fan who every season spends their dollars in their support of his team, and believes he is the reason the Cowboys mediocre their way through the 21st century, and want more in return, he says:
“I’ve lived a life of having people tell me, ‘Jerry, I want more.’ I expect that. Jerry wants more,” he said, denoting he doesn’t like using the third-person reference. “I want more. My point is I feel you, or others, would disagree our best way to get more is to do what we are going to be doing the next few days.”
This isn’t helping.
“I thought the best way to get more is to bring in Brian,” Jerry said. “I happen to know because I’ve been in the NFL for this many years you don’t always get more. Sometimes you get some real shockers. I want our fans to know how important this is to me.
“I want our fans to know I lay awake at night looking for an edge. I want the fans to know the financial rewards of what we decide as a football team is not an issue at all.”
This do anything for you?
“A win is a big deal,” he said. “I’m on the incentive plan more than I’ve ever been. That’s why I’m here, and do everything we can to make a Super Bowl.”
Jerry is 83 years old, and well aware of his play clock. Of the gift that is time.
Change is hard enough when you’re 33, so it figures to be damn near impossible at 83.
Any Cowboys fan should take him at his word that his desire to win another Super Bowl is as sincere as his love for his children.
Any Cowboys fan over the age of 2 should have great reservation that how he plans to attack that goal will be much different here in 2026 than it was in 2016, 2006, or 1996. A few coaches will be changed. The front office will draft some defensive players, who may even develop into Pro Bowl level contributors.
It feels like the squirrel who isn’t blind, but he’s just determined to find an NFC title game his way. Because that’s the way he’s always done it, and 30 years ago it worked.
If your money wasn’t involved in supporting the Dallas Cowboys show, all of it may be funny, instead of just flat, sad, and a bad joke.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 6:11 PM.
