For an administration that can barely go an hour without embarrassing itself, Trump’s latest fumble was still exceptionally embarrassing. On Sunday night, Donald Trump attended the Washington Commanders’ game in Landover, Maryland, where he got booed—hard. Why? Take your pick: maybe it’s because he’s behind the now-longest federal shutdown, or because he keeps throwing parties at Mar-a-Lago while Americans are missing paychecks, or! maybe because he’s the architect behind a literal food insecurity campaign. Nevertheless, the heckling was so bad that Trump seemingly forgot his own name and ended up leaving before the Commanders’ game against the Detroit Lions ended.
“We’re gonna have a good game,” the president told reporters before he entered the stadium. “Things are going along very well.”
But every time he showed up on the Jumbotron, spectators jeered, and at halftime, Trump was barely audible over the booing crowd. Standing next to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, he read—and fumbled—the oath that military members say when they’re enlisted. “I, and state your name,” he said, “do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, foreign and domestic.” I assume he was supposed to say, “I, Donald Trump,” but the booing (and I’m sure nothing else) must have affected his cognitive functions.
Trump’s visit follows a day after ESPN reported backchannel talks between the White House and Commanders owners to name the team’s new $3.7 billion stadium after the president. It would “surely be a beautiful name,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement, adding “it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible.”
Which… isn’t true. Before the Commanders played in the Landover stadium, they’d played at the RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. That stadium is currently being demolished, but in April, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to build a new one in its place. And such a project was only made possible in late 2024, when Joe Biden signed a bill that gave the land surrounding the RFK Stadium—which formerly belonged to the federal government—to the city. As for Trump’s contributions, all he did was throw a massive fit via Truth Social in July over the Commanders’ now-retired (and very problematic) name, the Washington Redskins.
Trump’s attendance marks the first time a sitting president has gone to a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter visited a Monday night football game in 1978, but attending sports events—and getting booed at them—seems to be a recurring theme of his second term. Since January, Trump has attended a UFC event, a Yankees match, the Ryder Cup golf tournament, and the US Open finals. And he was booed at at least three of those events.
Several other administration officials were at the game Sunday night, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. All of them were invited as a guest of MAGA sycophant Josh Harris, one of the Commanders’ managing partners. Unfortunately for Commanders’ fans, they suffered a humiliating defeat against the Lions in a blowout 44-22 loss. Still, I’d say that’s the second-most embarrassing thing to happen all night.
More barf:
- Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem tried buying 10 planes from Spirit Airlines, but none of them had engines—or were owned by Spirit to begin with. (Wall Street Journal)
- Speaking at an event at the National War College, Pete Hegseth said we’re in a “1939 moment.” (Forbes)
- Trump threw another Mar-a-Lago rager on Friday. (Daily Beast)
- New State Department guidance just dropped. Fat people will have a harder time getting visas into the U.S. (The New Republic)
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture demanded that states “undo” any actions to provide SNAP benefits. (New York Times)
This has been your Monday barf, thanks for reading!
Like what you just read? You’ve got great taste. Subscribe to Jezebel, and for $5 a month or $50 a year, you’ll get access to a bunch of subscriber benefits, including getting to read the next article (and all the ones after that) ad-free. Plus, you’ll be supporting independent journalism—which, can you even imagine not supporting independent journalism in times like these? Yikes.