PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump began the morning golfing with Tiger Woods under a baby blue sky after a weekend dining with Senate Republicans, revoking security clearances for his predecessor and relaxing at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
By midafternoon, he was en route to New Orleans, offering extensive commentary to reporters on everything from tariffs to Gaza to Canada’s sovereignty to the entertainment selections at the Kennedy Center. By nightfall he was making history as the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl and, three weeks after being sworn into office, he completed at least one goal: Make Trump Ubiquitous Again.
Trump has long tapped into football, one of America’s most popular and enduring pastimes, but his attendance at the most-watched television event of the year took his engagement to new heights. He became inescapable. In a uniquely American cultural moment of glitzy television ads, a halftime show and two powerhouse teams — add Trump to the mix.
Three weeks into his presidency, the country has been shocked into the era of Trump. He’s signaling an immense amount of swagger and confidence, offering opinions on just about everything — relishing how athletes are even mimicking his slow-swaying, arm-waving dance moves — and making clear that he’s just getting started.
But the backdrop of his swagger is a blizzard of executive actions designed to dismantle huge swaths of the federal bureaucracy, upend relationships with global allies and punish those who have tried to thwart him. And it’s unclear how many of those gambits will come to fruition, with some under challenge in the courts and early warning signs of political opposition to the deep budget cuts he is envisioning.
“The country has taken on a whole new life,” Trump said in an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News, a portion of which aired in the afternoon pregame coverage that included a kicking competition between Peyton and Eli Manning and a panel discussion sizing up the offensive lines of each team.
“I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the president be at the game,” Trump added. “It’s an iconic day.”
As the president flew on Air Force One, he had a large contingent with him, including his son Eric, daughter Ivanka, and a range of elected officials, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pennsylvania), and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas). Also aboard was Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), the former college football coach.
Upon arrival to the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Trump came in through the tunnel at the corner of the Chiefs’ end zone, greeting first responders and victims of the New Year’s Day terrorist attack. He took photos but was off the field within about two minutes. A mix of cheers and boos went up when he came on the field and again later, when the jumbo screens showed him saluting from his box.
A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that Trump started with net positive ratings from Americans, with most describing him as “tough,” “energetic,” “focused” and “effective.” Most said that he was doing more than they expected, and most said they liked the results. He earned a 53 percent approval rating in the poll, with 47 percent disapproving of his job so far.
Among the cautionary signs in the survey, however, was that most Americans said the Trump administration wasn’t focused enough on lowering prices, a finding that could prove perilous given that Trump won the election in part by criticizing Biden’s economy and the high inflation under his watch.
In the Fox interview, which he recorded Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump seemed unencumbered by those concerns.
He said that Canada should become part of the United States (“I think Canada would be much better being a 51st state”), and he criticized a federal judge’s emergency order early Saturday prohibiting Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal and financial data on millions of Americans kept at the Treasury Department (“I disagree with it, 100 percent. I think it’s crazy”). He said he wanted to soon target federal education and military spending. He also claimed a desire to unify the country.
“I’d love to do it, but, I would say this: We have to come together,” he said. “But to come together there’s only one thing that’s going to do it, and that’s massive success. Success will bring the country together, but it’s hard.”
Trump had plenty more to say as Air Force One took a 94-minute flight to New Orleans, speaking to reporters for 30 minutes on the plane.
He made news about tariffs coming this week. He added to his riff on Canada, issuing a bit of a threat. “They do almost all of their business with us. And if we say we want our cars to be made in Detroit, with the stroke of a pen, I can do that and other things that … could not allow Canada to be a viable country.”
He expanded on his views to take over and rebuild Gaza, and he said that hostages that Hamas have released look like survivors of the Holocaust. “I don’t know how much longer we can take it,” he said. “You know, at some point we’re going to lose our patience.”
He even weighed in on why he wants to be chairman of Washington’s cultural crown jewel, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: “Because I want to make sure it runs properly. We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center. We don’t need — some of the shows were terrible. They were a disgrace that they were even put on.”
Trump also signed a proclamation that Sunday was “Gulf of America Day” — and the flight crew announced that Air Force One was passing over the newly renamed Gulf of America on the way to New Orleans.
“Attention, ladies and gentlemen, if you could please direct your attention out the right side of the aircraft,” the announcer said. “Air Force One is currently in international waters, for the first time in history flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America. Please enjoy the flight.”
Trump’s arrival in New Orleans, by some measures, was historic.
While several vice presidents have attended the Super Bowl, and George H.W. Bush went as a former president, Trump’s trip makes him the first sitting president to attend. The crowd also included former first lady Jill Biden, a self-described “Philly girl,” who attended with a group of Eagles fans along with her stepson, Hunter.
But Trump, as he seems to relish so much these days, was the one front and center.
Trump has long seen football as a popular bandwagon to jump aboard. In September, he traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, settling into a seat in Bryant-Denny Stadium for the much-anticipated showdown between No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama. He went to the 2020 national championship game in New Orleans, and made four trips to the annual Army-Navy game. As he was running against Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, he attended the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry game in Columbia, South Carolina.
Trump has a long history with the sport — including failed efforts to buy the Buffalo Bills, ownership of a USFL team in the 1980s and blame from some for the downfall of that league. He has regularly spoken out about the NFL and its players.
He criticized Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49er quarterback who took a knee in 2016 during the national anthem to protest police violence and racial inequity. That same year, Trump ridiculed the league, saying “football has become soft like our country has become soft.” In 2020, he called it “boring as hell.”
More recently, he has been critical of rules designed to make the game safer, calling the NFL’s new kickoff rule the “BEGINNING OF THE END” in a Truth Social post.
During his Fox interview, Trump was asked to size up the matchup.
“I’m a big fan of both teams,” he said. “They’re sort of different.”
Philadelphia, he noted, has “one of the greatest running backs” in Saquon Barkley (he also praised his uncle, the boxer Iran Barkley, as a “great fighter”). Kansas City, though, has quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who “really knows how to win.”
“He’s a great, great quarterback,” Trump noted, going on to compliment his wife, Brittany. “She’s a Trump fan, she’s a MAGA fan.”
Pressed for a prediction, he said: “I guess you have to say that when a quarterback wins as much as he’s won, I have to go with Kansas City. I have to go with Kansas City.”
“It’s going to be just a great game.”
On that count, Trump’s prediction fell well short. The game was lopsided, and the Eagles won handily.