Trump reacts to being booed by Knicks NBA Finals crowd

Donald Trump returned to New York City to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and he was shown on the Jumbotron at Madison Square Garden during the National Anthem.The reception to the president's homecoming may not have been what he hoped for.

It was certainly amazing.It was, I think, mostly tears.

You know, when you mix sports and politics, you do so at your own peril.For instance, here's Stephen A. Smith before last night's tip -off at the Garden.

If the New York Knicks lose Game 3, This is our Donald Trump.You think I've been on him before?I'm gonna be on his ass like back pockets.Like white on rice.You got no business doing this.He doesn't belong at this game.

No president does.None of them.Democrat, Republican, Independent, I don't give a damn.

So the president, who is a New Yorker, showed up anyway, and that's not unusual.Trump has attended the Super Bowl, the U .S.Open College Football National Championship.He's now the first sitting president to attend the NBA finals.

Trump just had to bring his ass down.He's a jinx.It's like the goat in Chicago.He freaking jinxed everything.

Okay, today in the group chat, we've got Brianna Lyman, reporter for The Federalist, and Christine Quinn, executive committee chair for the New York State Democratic Committee.Sports people are very superstitious, let's just say that.There was this tweet from Ron Filipowski, I'm not an expert on jinxes, hexes, and voodoo, not superstitious either, but if I was the Knicks, I probably wouldn't let Trump near the arena for game four just to be on the safe side.What was the point of this for Trump?

Well, I think Trump has been a lifelong Knicks fan.There are pictures of him with Marla Maples, with Melania Trump in the 90s and early 2000s.So this is someone who probably is rooting for the same team he's been rooting for for decades.

This is the argument from Whoopi Goldberg.

She said the same thing.She defended him.

Trump and Mondani are Knicks fans.They've been New Yorkers.You can't tell them what they're not going to do.I think the thing I found interesting is Trump is very much our sports president, has been.Obama was an NBA guy.And he didn't go to games because he said it creates too much of a problem for the fans.

Absolutely.Look, I live on the west side of Manhattan.It was a mess yesterday.I was about to say, how are you here?Exactly.It was a total mess.

Fans had to get there at least two hours early.There didn't get to be a watch party right outside the garden.I get that he may be a fan, but you have to really appreciate when you're president.You're not just popping in and popping out.You're putting a whole bunch of people out.And in this case, he was a jinx.

There is no question.My wife could have been the jinx.Completely.He was a jinx.

Christine Quinn, jinx expert.Exactly.

Well, here's the thing.The reason why I'm asking about this is not just because it's funny, but also because one of the things people are accusing the administration of being in this moment when there's economic difficulty for people is tone deaf.The idea that, look, We're here, the regular schmoes who want to be involved in this thing, and he comes and just says, kind of let them eat cake, right?You can watch it on TV.And what was the sort of, I understand he's a fan, but does that contribute to the tone -deaf narrative?

Oh, I don't think this is tone -deaf at all.I think, first of all, a lot of those tickets, I mean, some of them are going for thousands of dollars.I think I saw one ticket price at $7 ,000.And the people who were buying them and who were court side were a lot of people very popular among the left and celebrities, right?And I don't think - Did they have motorcades in message security?Ew.

but those are the same people who for four years lectured us that things were fine under Joe Biden.So they also could be considered tone deaf.But I think the president politics is obviously very hostile, but sports is one of those last remaining arenas where people do put politics aside.

Let me play for you the reception Trump got.I don't think I just want to play.It's mass.It's Madison Square Garden.He is the new yorker of new yorkers.And this is how people react.

I thought it was amazing, actually.You mean when they had the camera on me?I thought it was very good, yeah.It was certainly amazing.It was, I think, mostly tears.

Carrie Champion here, CNN contributor and host of the flagrant and funny podcast.We had to bring in a little bit of an expert because we're political people.We don't know.We know about jinxes.We know about hoaxes.We don't know when politics and sports clash.

What is the outcome?It's just New York.New York wasn't voting for Trump in any way.

But it's just a problem.I listen.I will.First of all, you said, you know, people in sports normally are here.You say that normally they don't really care so much about politics.They absolutely cared about politics.

This is such a rare moment for New Yorkers.People have waited their entire lives.The last time they won a chip was 1973.

Yeah, but isn't that why the president of the United States, who is a New Yorker, would want to be there?

No, in fact, you should not want to be there because you want to keep that same momentum going.You know, New York is such a rare place.I've never seen fans like this before in my entire life, and they deserve to have this moment.And it was supposed to be uninterrupted, meaning we were supposed to have our watch parties around MSG.We were supposed to be in that moment.And I do believe in, you know, the great Stephen A. Smith said just the other day you played it, so he's

blames him.So that was the vibe.People were like, no.You can't be the cooler, Breonna.

You can't be on a street and then have someone come in and cool the street.That's not political.He was absolutely the cooler.

I'm saying cooler.Let me play one more thing.Tommy Viator, Pod Save America host.Obviously, these are Obama guys, but they're talking about the power of sports and why politicians would want to be involved.Here's that.

He knows the power of live professional sports, and that's the only kind of monocultural events we really have left.That's why he goes to a lot of games.Usually it's the NFL.He went to the Super Bowl.Usually he's more welcome in those, you know, sort of southern NFL spaces.I don't think he will be here.

I mean, he's also buddies with James Dolan, I think, the owner of the Knicks.

Always pals with the owners.Yeah.Not a real player guy.

Yeah.No, but like, look, he loves the limelight.He loves every spotlight, and he will attempt to co -opt this one, too.

Just that word, corrupt, co -op.We know that he loves sports.UFC, claw.Rising like a phoenix on the lawn.

Do you really think I don't think he loves sports?

He's always been he's been going to ringside games and matches No sitting president has ever attended a finals, right?

Look Barack loved NBA as you pointed out and he went to a few games But he would never do that one.It's on our dime to it disrupts everything that goes on while you're there And yes, you have sees a different thing for him in terms of for Donald Trump.That's more of his fan base That's where he lives.That's where people love to see him.He has obviously the relationship with Dana so when we see him at the NBA finals, it really throws off everything that people want it to be part of.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if any of this comes down on Dolan, who obviously has some interest in renovating Penn Station, and there's a bunch of questions there about that relationship that I wonder if people are going to probe more now that they are, I don't know, angry.Being from Boston, let me tell you, I know to keep my mouth shut on the necessary

no New York fans, because I'm trying to live out a long, happy life.

I cannot imagine that the president was surprised that he was booed at MSG.

I was just at, what was the thing where Fernando Mendoza played?The NCAA football championship.And Trump went.This was in Miami earlier this year.Spent so much money there.I'm not going to a sports event the rest of my life and and he was booed as well So I listen, I I think he knows that comes with the territory New York even more than in Miami, Florida I would tell you basketball and in Madison Square Garden even more and also, you know cost a lot of disruption It meant that a watch party that was scheduled to be happen outside of MSG did not happen But you know Maybe a glutton for punishment because the way that the city was like bracing for chaos today was unbelievable I think the booze weren't as much political or I won't say that they were definitely political and What you did to the city?

They couldn't have the watch party.Blocks of, you know, streets are blocked off.And there was an opportunity for you to maybe have a watch party in Washington because there's so many Knicks fans in D .C.You could have done it in the White House lawn.It would have been cool.

You would have been cool.

By that blue reflecting pool they just made.Exactly.

Could have put a little orange stripe down the middle.The White House lawn is under construction right now.But the point being is that there was an opportunity for you to take that moment as a New Yorker and still allow the Knicks to have their moment.

He's a Floridian now.Don't you know that we don't have property taxes over there?We don't have state income taxes over there?

He's a New Yorker.

That's why he wants the approval of the city so much.I don't mind presidents going to sporting events.No, not at all.But I do think that this one seemed, like, just unnecessary.It was.Just given everything that it entails to get him there and keep him safe.

Yeah.Yeah, I mean, it's interesting.Because actually, after the White House CorrespondentDinner, there was a lot of the common strategy out of the White House was we have to have the ballroom because it's not safe, but it's like it's safe for him to go to Madison Square Garden.But I mean, I think Madison Square Garden is not the SEC or in NYC.But what is interesting is when I worked on President Trump's 2024 campaign, the month before he got elected, we held a historic rally at MSG where it was a very different vibe.

I'll tell you that.Not a lot of booze, a lot of cheers.Why was it historic?And so it was historic because it was New York, because it's deep blue New York City for a Republican who then went on to win the presidency.But what I will say is I think it's good for the president to go out and do this and hear this reaction from the crowd, because I really think it's the war that is driving the crowd's reaction.And his staff really keeps him in a bubble.

They take him to the villages in Florida and they're like, see, everybody loves you.And it's like, no, everybody hates this war.And it's good for him to go out and actually get in touch with the people and really see Wait, and I think you're starting to see it shape his decision -making too.So actually I think this was a positive