Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
Millions could see it coming from a mile away, but President Donald Trump went through with his visit to Madison Square Garden for the New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs game—where he faced thunderous boos from a crowd that loathes him.
While Trump and his suck-ups at Fox News tried to pretend that the crowd was divided, video evidence and common sense shows otherwise.
And it’s not surprising.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris underperformed other Democrats in New York City in the 2024 election, and she still easily defeated Trump by nearly 38 points. The city is Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s territory—not Trump’s.
Trump expects more receptive crowds—like the ones at UFC fights—but the NBA response was more in line with what traditionally happens to Trump, like when he was booed while attending the World Series at Nationals Park in 2019.
Trump has a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between sports and its fans, which explains the wide gap between the reaction he expects and the one he actually gets.
Historically, Trump’s experience with sports is through extremely wealthy people who own teams. Like Trump, they’re almost exclusively elderly white men, while the actual athletes come from much more diverse backgrounds.
Trump is more likely to be seen at a sporting event in the owner’s box with the likes of Patriots owner Robert Kraft than courtside with NBA players like former President Barack Obama.
Trump is a racist whose entire public persona has been wrapped in bigotry, which directly clashes with the diverse world of sports.
Early in his first term, Trump even centered his racism on sports, lashing out at athletes who took a knee to oppose police brutality.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” Trump said during a 2017 rally.
When Trump has tried to mix sports and politics, he’s done it to prop up figures like Herschel Walker, who he supported as the GOP Senate nominee in Georgia’s 2022 race.
Walker was an unqualified gaffe machine who had no business in the race, and instead of Trump’s support being seen as reaching out to the Black community, it was seen as an insult: Trump propping up a Black man who entertained him, just like a sports owner hiring someone for the team.
Black voters weren’t fooled and came out in support of Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who won the election.
Prominent athletes have also come out in clear opposition to Trump. NBA superstars like Stephen Curry and LeBron James have criticized Trump’s bigotry, boycotted White House events, and campaigned for Democrats against Trump.
Related | Nothin’ but naps: Trump gets dunked on for sleeping through NBA game
These aren’t the conditions that are going to produce anything other than a Bronx cheer at the NBA playoffs.
Trump has aligned himself with fellow millionaires and billionaires, walling himself off from regular Americans. The billionaire class, including Trump, can’t connect with sports because they exist in a closed-off, glass-encased world where their out-of-touch views aren’t called out—which is when a person like Trump starts to think that NBA fans actually want to see him.
New York proved Trump very wrong—again.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
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Oliver Willis
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