US President Donald Trump attended the New York Yankees 9-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night, drawing a mixed reaction from a raucous crowd while marking the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Authorities installed security glass for the president outside the upper level box suite belonging to the Steinbrenner family, which owns the Yankees, on the third base side over the Tigers dugout at Yankee Stadium.
Wearing a suit and tie, Trump sat next to Yankees team president Randy Levine and chatted with him throughout the game, although he sat by himself at other times. During the national anthem, the president was shown on the stadium jumbotron and received boos from some in the crowd, cheers from others.
Photo: Reuters
When Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit a homer in the bottom of the first, Trump stood and applauded, as did members of an entourage that included US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman who is now head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
In the second inning, Trump’s attendance was announced and he was shown on the big screen for an extended period while Hail to the Chief played. He smiled and pumped his fist. Boos were heard at first, but many in the crowd eventually cheered.
A presidential visit always prompts extra security at sporting events, but things were heightened after conservative activist and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah on Wednesday. When Trump attended the Sept. 11 observance ceremony at the Pentagon earlier on Thursday, authorities moved the ceremony inside as an added precaution.
Trump’s attendance recalled then-US president George W. Bush’s ceremonial first pitch 24 years earlier as the Yankees played the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series — a moment that came to symbolize national resilience after the attacks mere weeks earlier.
Later in Thursday’s game, when YMCA was played, Trump spelled out the letters with his arms, but stayed seated.
The president left shortly after the seventh-inning stretch, which featured the singing of God Bless America, as it traditionally does at Yankees games on Sept. 11, in addition to Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
Trump was shown on the big screen three times in quick succession and the announcer said: “Welcome back, New York’s own, the 45th and 47th president” and thanked Trump.
Among the announced crowd in the Bronx of nearly 41,000, that prompted cheers of “USA! USA!” and some chants of Trump’s last name as he stood, grinned and pumped his fist in a downward motion. There were also some in the crowd who booed, and they got louder each time Trump was shown.
Before the game started, Trump stopped by the Yankee clubhouse. He shook hands with the players and team staff members and talked about being close for years with late, longtime Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
“We won every time I came,” he said of his past attending games with Steinbrenner.
“You think that was easy sitting with him for a game? It wasn’t. It was brutal. But he won, and you’re going to win,” the president said.
The Yankees game is Trump’s eighth major sporting event since returning to the White House in January, most recently the US Open final last week.
Trump was born in the New York borough of Queens and, although he has lived in Florida in recent years, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president “remains a New Yorker at heart.”
Still, Trump’s appearances at baseball games have not always been welcomed by fans.
During his first term in 2019, Trump tried to make a low-profile appearance as the Washington Nationals hosted the Houston Astros in the World Series, but was booed roundly when shown on the stadium’s big screen. There were even chants of “Lock him up!”
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