Trump Attends Knicks Final
Boos and disruption ensue.
AP (“Donald Trump booed by the crowd during the anthem prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals“):
Donald Trump was booed loudly by fans inside Madison Square Garden when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem as he became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.
Chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” echoed through the arena as Avery Wilson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but they they gave way to boos moments later as Trump was displayed on the jumbo screens giving a military salute. The jeers ended when the U.S. flag followed him on the screens, and fans cheered when New York Knicks players were shown. Mentions of the San Antonio Spurs also elicited vociferous boos.
The president was unfazed. “It was, I think, mostly cheers,” he told reporters after the game before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It was loud, and it was very enthusiastic.”
Trump watched Game 3 from Knicks owner James Dolan’s suite, along with granddaughter Kai, personal adviser Boris Epshteyn and Cabinet secretaries Lee Zeldin, Sean Duffy and Doug Burgum. He sat next to Dolan for the first quarter and spent part of the second talking to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman.
Trump’s Marine One helicopter flew from his home in New Jersey and landed near Wall Street before his motorcade made its way up through Manhattan and to the arena roughly an hour before tipoff. He encountered a handful of people making rude gestures, and outside the area, one group held signs saying “Trump must go.”
[…]
During the afternoon before Trump’s arrival, the New York Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service set up a large perimeter surrounding Madison Square Garden. Fans lined up to get inside the arena more than four hours before tipoff, in a scene more closely resembling New Year’s Eve in Times Square than the usual leadup to a basketball game.
They were required to provide a ticket or pass to get past various checkpoints, along with going through a Transportation Security Administration-style magnetometer. Secret Service personnel and police were positioned at every corner and in large numbers. Daily commuters, tourists visiting Manhattan and fans were all confounded at various times as they tried to maneuver the security.
Politicians getting booed is a fact of life, even when they don’t have disapproval ratings in the 60s. Who can forget the heartwarming Let’s Go Brandon! cheers under the previous administration?
It didn’t help that Trump’s attendance caused considerable inconvenience. It’s not the first time.
This is the latest major sporting event Trump has attended during his time as president, and the security measures have created major hassles for fans.
Thousands of fans missed the start of last year’s U.S. Open men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner because of lengthy security lines. Even though the U.S. Tennis Association pushed back the start of the match by a half-hour, many fans still couldn’t get in because added measures meant that they had to go through screening not only when they arrived at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center but again in front of the steps into Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Trump watched from a suite.
It’s my longstanding view, conditioned by my time working in downtown DC and experiencing constant disruptions from official motorcades, that such disruptions should be restricted to the people’s business. It’s one thing to shut down several blocks of downtown Manhattan to ensure the President can safely address the United Nations. It’s quite another to do so for him to personally attend a ballgame.
And then Fatso fell asleep!!! Quite an expensive f’ing nap, Donnie. This cover art for the New Yorker is prescient!!!
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2026-06-15
He looks like a hugely over-inflated blow-up doll in that pic.
How much more the-emperor-has-no-clothes can it get?
Once upon a time, we were supposed to laugh about people like this.
But the sycophants WILL pretend it was cheers and embrace the humiliation. And expect the rest of us to humiliate ourselves, too.
And then, whenever it suits their needs, the sycophants will turn around and complain how terrible the people are in those Democrat-run, urban hellscapes.
And we’re supposed to agree with that, too.
Without the worst kind of self-abasing bootlickers, there would be no Trump.
It is a small matter (and one that most would not observe) but one that is trending in the wrong direction. During the playing of the National Anthem, Trump is standing at attention. As a civilian, he should have his hand over his heart like all those around him. Presidents (including Trump) regularly salute the troops. It is the idea that the term Commander-in-Chief means you are the top military leader rather than the top civilian in charge of the military. Eisenhower had it right. When he went from the top General to President, he knew he was a civilian and acted accordingly. It took Reagan and his acting perspective to put on a different show. How soon will it be before Trump shows up in some kind of military garb?
@Scott:
Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that he’d already tried or considered this. He is the most insecure person possibly on the planet, and he was sent to a military prep school for rich kids with discipline problems that he mentally equates with finishing West Point.