By WILL WEISSERT and STEPHEN WHYNO
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump attended the New York Yankees game on Thursday night time, drawing a combined response whereas marking the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, after honoring the reminiscences of the victims on the Pentagon earlier within the day.
Authorities put in safety glass exterior an higher degree suite on the third base facet, over the visiting Detroit Tigers dugout, for the president. Throughout the Nationwide Anthem, Trump was proven on the stadium jumbotron and obtained boos from some within the crowd, cheers from others.
Moments earlier, as he first took his seat, the president briefly waved to the group and flashed a thumb’s up — however not all followers seen as a result of there was no announcement he was arriving.
The stadium additionally briefly performed Trump’s unofficial marketing campaign anthem, “God Bless the USA,” however to little response. There have been chants of “USA! USA! USA!” however they have been extra associated to marking Sept. 11 than Trump’s attending the sport.
All that adopted Trump stopping by the house group’s clubhouse about quarter-hour earlier than the sport. He shook arms with the gamers and group workers members, and talked about being shut for years with late Yankees proprietor George Steinbrenner, calling him “an excellent pal of mine, the entire household.”
Trump predicted the Yankees would win, noting of his previous attending video games with Steinbrenner, “We gained each time I got here.”
“You suppose that was straightforward sitting with him for a sport? It wasn’t. It was brutal. However he gained, and also you’re going to win,” the president mentioned.
He later added: “You’re going to go all the best way, and also you’ll get within the playoff — and I feel we’ll begin off, how about tonight? We’ll begin from tonight on, and also you’re going to do properly.” The Tigers beat the Yankees throughout the first two video games of the sequence Tuesday and Wednesday by a mixed rating of 23-3.
Trump mentioned he needed to “want you guys numerous luck. You’re nice gamers, I do know, each one in all you.” He additionally recalled that the Yankees’ archrival, the Boston Pink Sox, had visited him within the Oval Workplace earlier this summer season after which went on an extended profitable streak.
Supervisor Aaron Boone mentioned earlier than 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 one thing that I’m excited to be part of,” Boone mentioned of Trump being on-hand.
A presidential go to at all times prompts further safety at sporting occasions, however issues have been heightened after conservative activist and shut Trump ally Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah on Wednesday. When Trump attended the Sept. 11 observance ceremony on 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 because the Yankees performed the Arizona Diamondbacks within the 2001 World Sequence — a second that got here to represent nationwide resilience after the assaults mere weeks earlier.
Because the assaults, the Yankees and their followers have marked Sept. 11 throughout the seventh-inning stretch by singing “God Bless America” along with the normal “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and so they have been doing so once more Thursday. Additionally they held a second of silence earlier than the primary pitch.
Safety on the stadium was tight, with entrance that includes metallic detectors and Secret Service brokers, some with sniffer canine, whereas New York Police Division helicopters thundered overhead.
Stadium authorities opened the gates three hours earlier than the primary pitch, and lengthy strains started forming even earlier than that, although many of the crowd seemed to be transferring into the stadium easily. The Yankees mentioned ticketholders have been “strongly urged to reach as early as potential.”
The Secret Service mentioned further time would probably be wanted to enter the sport and requested followers to think about leaving their baggage at residence.
Trump’s attendance on the U.S. Open males’s last in Queens final weekend sparked security lines lengthy sufficient that some followers didn’t make it to their seats till greater than an hour into the match, regardless of organizers delaying its begin by half-hour.
The sport is Trump’s eighth main sporting occasion since returning to the White Home 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 Membership World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and final weekend’s U.S. Open match.
The Yankee Stadium scoreboard featured a big MLB emblem over an American flag and a crimson, white and blue ribbon below the inscription “September 11, 2001, We Shall Not Overlook.”
The big American flag behind the left discipline bleachers and the smaller flags for every of baseball’s 30 groups that ring the stadium’s higher degree have been lowered to half-staff after Trump issued an government order honoring Kirk. Earlier than Wednesday’s sport, the Yankees held a second of silence for Kirk and flashed his image on their stadium’s huge display.
Trump was born within the New York borough of Queens and, although he’s lived in Florida lately, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned he “stays a New Yorker at coronary heart.” Nonetheless, Trump’s appearances at baseball video games haven’t at all times been welcomed by followers.
Throughout his first time period in 2019, Trump tried to make a low-profile look because the Washington Nationals hosted the Houston Astros within the World Sequence, however was booed roundly when proven on the stadium’s huge display. There have been even chants of “Lock him up!”
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