Donald Trump has taken a break from playing golf during the government shutdown to try his hand at an unexpected new sporting role.
Fresh from being resoundingly booed at the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions game at Northwest Stadium in Maryland on Sunday, the president surfaced in the safety of the Fox NFL commentary box.
Introduced by hosts Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma, Trump talked up the halftime ceremony at the game to honor the military on Veteran’s Day weekend.
“We just swore in a tremendous group of young people,” Trump said, before making sure he found time to attack former President Joe Biden. “Our recruitment’s been record-setting since a year ago, it was a disaster for the country, and now it’s record-setting so this was an honor to be here.”
While in the commentary box, Albert mentioned Ronald Reagan had been a sportscaster before he became president and asked Trump if he would like to call the play as the game resumed.
“I would like to do that if you’d like me to,” Trump, 79, said, “but I will say that your second string, your back-up quarterback is a good quarterback and he’s had some very good games for you. And your first string quarterback has the potential I think to be a great quarterback, he’s got to stop the injuries somehow.”
As the game continued, Trump added notes like “not bad,” and “good runner”, and “they have to get a touch down, forget about the play.”
During his commentary, where he called a 2nd-and-7 play for the Commanders inside the redzone, the hosts filled in crucial gaps including the play being taken to the five yard line, with Trump adding “that’s right.”
Albert and Vilma both joked that Trump was doing their jobs for them.
MAGA mouthpieces were quick to post Trump’s commentary box appearance as they continue to distract from the government shutdown impacting everyday Americans.
White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung posted a photo of Trump with the caption “POTUS doing some @NFL play-by-play at the Lions/Commanders game.”
Trump’s Communication Advisor Margo Martin posted a video with the caption "@realDonaldTrump talks with Fox Sports Broadcasters at the Washington Commanders game."
The White House’s RapidResponse47 account posted that Trump was doing “a little on-air play-by-play” during the game.
Trump was also asked what he enjoys about sports, noting “I just love it. It’s a microcosm of life, the good the bad and the ugly.. you can equate sports with life, you got to get through the problems to hit the triumphs, and you can never quit — you can never give up.”
The hosts told Trump he was the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978. “That’s a long time,” Trump responded. “Wow.”
The president has been highly critical of the NFL this year. He previously called out the choice of anti-MAGA rapper Bad Bunny to perform at next year’s Super Bowl, after the Puerto Rican megastar said he was not playing tour dates in America for fear of ICE officers holding raids outside his concerts.
Trump has also slammed the NFL’s kick off changes, which were instated last year and tweaked before the current season.
The changes were made to increase the amount of kickoff returns and minimize the chance of dangerous collisions between players.
The president labelled the NFL’s changes as creating “sissy football” in a Truth Social post from September.
“How can they make such a big and sweeping change so easily and quickly. It’s at least as dangerous as the “normal” kickoff, and looks like hell,“ Trump wrote. ”'Sissy’ football is bad for America, and bad for the NFL! Who comes up with these ridiculous ideas?"
