President Donald Trump, 79, got a rude awakening from his constituents when he showed up at the Detroit Lions versus Washington Commanders NFL game.
After reportedly arriving 80 minutes late, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game since the late Jimmy Carter in 1978. His special appearance at Northwest Stadium, Landover, Maryland, to watch Washington’s devastating 44-22 loss to Detroit on Nov. 9, sparked a frenzy online over what happened during his address to the crowd.
The New York City-born Republican politician was on hand for the Washington versus Detroit game to help celebrate the league-wide Salute to Service initiative, which honors American military service members. He was joined by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and other Trump administration officials.
Loud boos rang out from Commanders fans in the stands when the polarizing commander in chief was shown on the video screen late in the first half.
Trump was reading an oath for military members to recite when the jeering began. In addition to getting verbally heckled, people in the crowd also held up middle fingers in his direction.
While Trump being hit with booming boo birds became a trending topic on social media, Hegseth, 45, was made into a meme for his supposed “furious” stone-faced reaction to the scorn aimed at him and his boss.
“He knows that the boos came from the largely military crowd. They hate him and Trump,” one Threads user expressed about the POTUS and the SecDef.
A second critic of the current regime added, “Wow! Just Wow! Listen to fans at the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions game boo Donald Trump. America hates Trump!”
View on Threads
“Good! They deserved every last boo,” read a third reply to Trump and Hegseth’s awkward greeting from their NFL fan tormentors.
“Who can tell he’s furious? He always looks like that and doesn’t give a rat’s behind what anyone thinks,” a more supportive poster suggested about Hegseth.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Hegseth as Secretary of Defense in January following a contentious nomination process. Several scandals, including Signalgate, have marred his tenure in the position.
Like with Hegseth, the president’s second term has turned out to be wrapped in countless controversies since he took the oath of office at the inauguration in January.
Trump’s approval rating dropped to 41 percent in October, an 8-point decline since returning to the White House more than nine months ago. That unpopularity was on full display in Maryland on Sunday.
This was not the first time Trump was met with a hostile crowd in the left-leaning DMV area. In 2019, he received the same negative treatment at that year’s World Series in Washington.
Fans inside Nationals Park watching the Washington Nationals take on the Houston Astros in Game 5 even chanted “Lock Him Up” at Trump, who was accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.
Trump and Melania, 55, also got a mixed reaction in June 2025 when the couple walked into the presidential box at the Kennedy Center for the opening night performance of the “Les Misérables” musical at the iconic cultural center in Washington.
