President Donald Trump attends Game Three of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 8, 2026.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump was loudly booed at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Monday night before the start of Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the home team Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.
The thunderous boos began when Trump was shown on the Jumbotron with Knicks owner James Dolan in Dolan’s suite above the court during the playing of the national anthem.
The jeers turned to cheers when the Jumbotron’s focus turned to Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who was shown standing on the court. The Knicks, who have not won an NBA title since 1973, entered the game with a 2-0 lead over the Spurs.
Trump’s attendance at the game caused waits of two hours or more for ticket-holding fans to enter the famed arena in Midtown Manhattan after security screening. He is the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals.
The president’s motorcade passed signs that read “Nobody wants you here” and “Trump must go,” as it moved from lower Manhattan up the FDR Drive and over to the Garden.
Two other signs “Impeach. Convict. Remove.”
When the motorcade pulled up to the Garden, people standing along the street booed it, while others waved American flags.
With Trump in the suite were his granddaughter Kai Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and his valet and former fellow criminal case co-defendant Walt Nauta.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was sitting courtside.
Also at the game was New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and celebrities including film director and Knicks superfans Spike Lee and Ben Stiller, actor Timothée Chalamet, and “Law & Order” co-stars Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni.
A native of Queens who first gained fame as a brash Manhattan real estate developer, Trump is now deeply unpopular in heavily Democratic New York City.
In the 2024 presidential election, the Republican Trump received fewer than 839,000 votes in the city, compared to more than 1.9 million votes for the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, the then-vice president.
Last week’s news that Trump planned to attend Game 3 was met with derision from some Knicks fans, who worried that his presence would throw the team off its rhythm in what has been the second-longest unbeaten playoff game streak in NBA history.
That unhappiness grew when game watch parties in the area around MSG would be cancelled because of Trump’s presence.
“Why does Donald Trump always have to ruin a good thing?” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said on CNN on Friday.
“The Knicks haven’t been in the NBA Finals for 27 years, the city is trying to celebrate this, we’ve embraced this team, and this guy has to inject himself,” Jeffries said.
But NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, speaking to ESPN’s “Inside The NBA” before the game, said Trump is “welcome to be here.”
“I think that what makes sports so special, especially when there’s so much [that] divides people, is it’s something that we have in common,” Silver said, according to ESPN.
“And we should look for those things that we have in common and build off that,” the commissioner said.