The US President attended an American football game between the Washington Commanders and the Detroit Lions. It did not go well for him
Donald Trump was booed, jeered at and given the finger by hundreds of American football fans in a humiliating spectacle. The US President attended the game over the weekend alongside Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson. The special game was to mark Veterans Day – and saw him perform a mass swearing in of some new military recruits. But as he was introduced to the crowd, it was clear they were decidedly unimpressed.
The game saw the Washington Commanders play at home against the Detroit Lions, at Northwest Stadium on the outskirts of DC. DC is famously one of the most liberal places in America, and voted for Kamala Harris by a higher margin than any other state or territory. The crowd is also very likely to have included a high proportion of government workers or contractors, many of whom will have lost work due to the six-week government shutdown.
And they certainly made their feelings known to the US President, turning to him as he stood in a glass box above the stadium and holding their middle fingers in the air and loudly booing him.
He was the first sitting President in more than half a century to attend a regular season NFL game. While speaking to Fox Sports during the broadcast, Trump indicated he was involved in the Commanders’ plans to build a new stadium in the city – despite previously threatening to deny them approval unless they changed their name back to the ‘Redskins’.
“They’re going to build a beautiful stadium. That’s what I’m involved in, we’re getting all the approvals and everything else,” he said. “And you have a wonderful owner, Josh [Harris] and his group. And you’re going to see some very good things.”
The $3.7 billion stadium is scheduled to open in 2030, and Trump is reportedly pressuring the team to name it after him.
A senior White House official told ESPN that Trump has conveyed his wishes directly to a member of investor Josh Harris’s ownership group. “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen,” the official sad. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added in an email: “That would be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible.”