The president was back in New York on Thursday for a Yankee game set to commemorate September 11th, and received a decidedly more positive reception than his last visit to the city less than a week earlier.
But there was still a chorus of boos, some would say was typical of Yankee Stadium and its notorious crowds, which buffeted the president’s section in opposition to chants of “USA! USA!” that broke out from his supporters. Reporters on scene heard the booing, though they described the cheers as louder in their section.
Trump’s attendance at Thursday’s game between the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers was his second event of the day in commemoration of the deadly September 11th terrorist attacks in Washington and New York; earlier, he spoke at the Pentagon where he remarked about the murder of a conservative activist, Charlie Kirk, who was close with many in Trumpworld including Vice President JD Vance and the president’s eldest son, Donald Jr.
Video posted by the White House’s rapid response account highlighted the supportive chants from Trump’s fans and others, while a video from Jomboy Media and The New York Post captured a loud wave of booing.
Before the game, he spoke to players in the locker room, including Aaron Judge, whom he called an “unbelievable player.” The president shook hands and encouraged the team briefly, joking that he’d been forced to invite the Boston Red Sox to the White House earlier this year.
“You’re gonna win, I tell you what,” Trump told the team. “You’re going to go all the way.”
Joining Trump at the game were four Republican members of Congress from New York: Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Nick LaLota, Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler.
The president was seated behind bulletproof glass for Thursday night’s game, a precaution put in place likely due to the fatal shooting of his political ally Kirk, a day earlier. Trump had previously appeared days earlier, on Sunday, at the U.S. Open where he enjoyed much of the match in a private, though unshielded, section.
Kirk’s murder shocked Trumpworld and stoked a fury on the MAGA right, where he was seen as one of the youngest leaders of the Trump coalition. Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization was publicly supportive of Trump and its chapters nationwide have been credited with being vessels to promote the MAGA agenda on college campuses.
The 31-year-old was conducting one of those campus visits at Utah Valley University on Thursday when he was murdered by a shooter whose single bullet struck Kirk in the neck, killing him after he was rushed to the hospital.
Trump issued several remarks about Kirk’s murder on social media and earlier Thursday at a 9/11 event at the Pentagon, one of the sites struck by Al Qaeda terrorists in 2001. He didn’t address the shooting at Thursday’s game, but did so to reporters as he left Washington for New York on Thursday evening.
“You don’t replace a Charlie Kirk. He was unique,” Trump said. He added that he had an “indication” of the motive, adding: “We'll let you know about that later."
"[The killer]'s an animal, total animal, and hopefully they'll have him, and they'll get him. What he did is disgraceful,” the president continued. “Charlie Kirk was a great person, a great man, great in every way, especially with youth. And what he did, what this man did, was disgraceful. So hopefully we'll have him and we will deal with him very appropriately."
Trumpworld’s focus on Kirk touched off an ugly discourse on social media. Many mainstream liberals joined conservatives in eulogizing the MAGA activist’s death, provoking revulsion from some progressives. On Twitter and other platforms, many on the left insisted that the murder was unconscionable while simultaneously arguing that liberals and conservatives were whitewashing Kirk’s sometimes racist remarks.
Medhi Hasan, a former MSNBC host, questioned liberal commentator Ezra Klein over the latter’s declaration in The New York Times that Kirk “was practicing politics the right way”: “Genuine Q: was Kirk "practicing politics in exactly the right way" when he called for me to be deported because he didn't like my Covid view on MSNBC?”
Not joining Trump for Thursday night’s game was one member of the White House who was originally supposed to be in New York earlier on Thursday for the city’s own 9/11 commemoration: Vice President JD Vance.
Vance, skipping that memorial service, flew to Utah to return Kirk’s body to the Turning Point cofounder’s home state of Arizona instead.
