NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump attended the New York Yankees game on Thursday night, drawing a mixed reaction while marking the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, after honoring the memories of the victims at the Pentagon earlier in the day.
Authorities installed security glass outside an upper level suite on the third base side, over the visiting Detroit Tigers dugout, for the president. During the National Anthem, Trump was shown on the stadium jumbotron and received boos from some
in the crowd, cheers from others.
Moments earlier, as he first took his seat, the president briefly waved to the crowd and flashed a thumb's up — but not all fans noticed because there was no announcement he was arriving.
The stadium also briefly played Trump's unofficial campaign anthem, “God Bless the USA,” but to little rection. There were chants of “USA! USA! USA!" but they were more related to marking Sept. 11 than Trump's attending the game.
All that followed Trump stopping by the home team's clubhouse about 15 minutes before the game. He shook hands with the players and team staff members, and talked about being close for years with late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, calling him "a great friend of mine, the whole family.”
Trump predicted the Yankees would win, noting of his past attending games with Steinbrenner, “We won every time I came.”
“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.
He later added: "You’re going to go all the way, and you’ll get in the playoff -- and I think we’ll start off, how about tonight? We’ll start from tonight on, and you’re going to do well.” The Tigers beat the Yankees during the first two games of the series Tuesday and Wednesday by a combined score of 23-3.
Trump said he wanted to "wish you guys a lot of luck. You’re great players, I know, every one of you.” He also recalled that the Yankees' archrival, the Boston Red Sox, had visited him in the Oval Office earlier this summer and then went on a long winning streak.
Manager Aaron Boone said before Trump's arrival that Yankees leftfielder Anthony Volpe had quietly been playing with a partial labrum tear in his left shoulder. As he greeted him, Trump patted him softly on the shoulder.
“It’s something that I’m excited to be a part of,” Boone said of Trump being on-hand.
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 Thursday, authorities moved the ceremony inside as an added precaution.
Trump's attendance recalled 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.
Since the attacks, the Yankees and their fans have marked Sept. 11 during the seventh-inning stretch by singing “God Bless America” in addition to the traditional “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and they were doing so again Thursday. They also held a moment of silence before the first pitch.
Security at the stadium was tight, with entrance featuring metal detectors and Secret Service agents, some with sniffer dogs, while New York Police Department helicopters thundered overhead.
Stadium authorities opened the gates three hours before the first pitch, and long lines began forming even before that, though most of the crowd appeared to be moving into the stadium smoothly. The Yankees said ticketholders were “strongly urged to arrive as early as possible.”
The Secret Service said extra time would likely be needed to enter the game and asked fans to consider leaving their bags at home.
Trump's attendance at the U.S. Open men's final in Queens last weekend sparked security lines long enough that some fans didn’t make it to their seats until more than an hour into the match, despite organizers delaying its start by 30 minutes.
The game is Trump’s eighth major sporting event since returning to the White House in January. He attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500, UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia, the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and last weekend's U.S. Open match.
The Yankee Stadium scoreboard featured a large MLB logo over an American flag and a red, white and blue ribbon under the inscription “September 11, 2001, We Shall Not Forget.”
The large American flag behind the left field bleachers and the smaller flags for each of baseball’s 30 teams that ring the stadium's upper level were lowered to half-staff after Trump issued an executive order honoring Kirk. Before Wednesday’s game, the Yankees held a moment of silence for Kirk and flashed his picture on their stadium's big screen.
Trump was born in the New York borough of Queens and, though he's lived in Florida in recent years, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he “remains a New Yorker at heart.” Still, Trump's appearances at baseball games haven't 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!”
