Crowd boos Trump during national anthem as he watches Knicks at NBA Finals in Madison Square Garden
President Donald Trump was loudly booed Monday night inside New York City’s Madison Square Garden as he watched his hometown Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs in game three of the NBA Finals.
The crowd first began to boo when the president appeared on the jumbotron during the singing of the national anthem.
President Trump took in the opening ceremonies from a private box with a smirk and saluted.
At times, the boos threatened to drown out the anthem, which was sung by Broadway performer Avery Wilson.
Fans were also recorded jeering the president at watch parties around the city, including at Bryant Park and in a Brooklyn bar.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
The president was joined by family, friends and White House colleagues at the historic game.
He was spotted alongside his granddaughter Kai Trump, as well as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, plus Knicks owner James Dolan.
Even before the POTUS was in the building, New Yorkers were angry that his planned appearance at the game would mean hiked-up security.
Fans began massing outside the Garden hours before the Monday evening tip-off, where they faced heavy security screening, a no-bag policy, and a line of fences and police officers that walled off the Midtown Manhattan arena and the surrounding area for blocks.
Trump’s appearance also meant the typical watch parties outside the stadium were called off for the evening, despite the hordes of New Yorkers looking to celebrate the first Knicks Finals run in more than two decades.
“The NYPD, in coordination with the Secret Service, made the decision for Game 3, where we have a presidential visit, that we could not support watch parties right outside of the Garden,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said earlier Monday.
All that security appeared to stop fans from getting inside the arena quickly, and the Garden was reportedly about half-empty just an hour before the game started.
“I wish he wasn’t here,” Brooklyn resident Errol Ismail, who needed to try multiple entrances to get into the Garden, told Reuters. “He’s not a real fan, and he’s just making things awful. We’ve waited a lifetime for this, and he’s made it about himself, like everything else.”
Back when he used to live in New York, Trump appeared from time to time at Knicks games, though he’s not quite known as a superfan on the level of Garden mainstays such as director Spike Lee or, more recently, actor Timothée Chalamet.
Knicks owner James Dolan, who has donated to support Trump’s presidential campaigns, invited the Republican to take in the Finals.
Trump, who often mixes politics and sports, is the first sitting president to watch a Finals game.
The invite could be a bit of canny politicking from Dolan.
Dolan also leads the company that owns the Garden, an arena whose fate will be massively impacted by a federally backed, multi-billion-dollar renovation of nearby Penn Station.
One proposal for the rebuild suggested moving the Garden from its present location, though that plan was not selected.
Dolan may be welcoming Trump and his administration with open arms, but other New York leaders aren’t.
Ahead of Monday’s face-off, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, threatened to flood the city with ICE agents to protest a recently signed state immigration package that restricts local police cooperation with the federal deportation crackdown.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other New York leaders sharply criticized the threat, which comes as the Empire State is set to host thousands of visitors and foreign travelers for the Finals and World Cup.
“We will not allow ICE or anyone else to sow fear in our communities — especially at this moment,” Mamdani wrote in a statement on X. “As the world comes to our city, we will stand proudly with our immigrant neighbors and reject these attacks for what they are: an attempt to divide us.”
The president wasn’t the only famous face in the crowd on Monday night.
Celebrities including Lee, Chalamet, Yankees legend Derek Jeter, comedian Tracy Morgan, and Daily Show host Jon Stewart all dotted the front rows.
The president will be in the crowd at another major sporting spectacle this week, a UFC fight that will be held in a custom-built arena on the White House lawn on Sunday in celebration of Trump’s birthday and America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
