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MS NOW host Rachel Maddow crowed over scenes of NBA Finals attendees appearing to boo President Trump at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, repeatedly playing short clips from the event.
“Do you want to see the warm, warm welcome the president of the United States got tonight, when he decided to pretend to be a basketball fan?” she said with a smirk during “The Rachel Maddow Show,” bursting into laughter.
“Do you want to see how much New Yorkers appreciated Donald Trump making them all come to the game hours early,” the far-left host ranted, “forcing everyone to go through tons of extra screening, forcing New York City to cancel the public free viewing parties they had planned outside Madison Square Garden, just specifically so Trump could be there in-person, even though he’s only ever talked trash about the NBA and doesn’t appear to have been an actual fan at all, at least for decades?
“Do you want to see the big, warm, New York welcome that actual Knicks fans gave him when he arrived at the venue tonight?” she sarcastically said.
She flashed a wide grin after playing footage of a small crowd of people outside the Garden booing the president’s motorcade as it arrived, saying, “When they’re waving at you with just one finger, it doesn’t mean the same as another kind of wave.”
Fans who attended Game 3 faced heightened security measures at MSG due to Trump’s appearance, including streets that were blocked off. No backpacks, bags or other containers were allowed into the venue, and the NYPD advised fans to arrive at least two hours before tip-off.
Bryant Park was added to the list of Knicks watch party locations after the NYPD and Secret Service put the kibosh on festivities right outside Madison Square Garden due to heightened security requirements. Watch parties were also held at Central Park and Brooklyn Bowl, among other locations.
Maddow also resorted to a replay of the 2024 election, pointing out deep blue Manhattan voted for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“In Manhattan, for the record, Donald Trump and JD Vance got 17% of the vote in the presidential election in 2024,” she said.
“Not 70% – 17%, which means given the choice between Donald Trump and allowing yourself to be puked upon by the big drops of greasy water that drip out of the back of window-mounted air conditioners onto the sidewalk in the summer, I think New Yorkers would … have to think hard about it,” she added.
Blinking repeatedly at the camera, Maddow said: “Do you want to see him arriving at the Garden one more time? Just one more time?”
She then replayed the clip of Trump’s motorcade pulling up to the venue, along with a clip from inside the arena that showed some audience members booing while Trump saluted during “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Maddow jabbed at the president for smiling at the time, then launched into an impression of the president, saying, “Just kinda smile through it. ‘Maybe they have a nickname for me that has an -oo sound in the middle of it. Maybe that’s what it is.’”
Ahead of Game 3, which saw the San Antonio Spurs clinch a 115-111 win, TV personalities like Stephen A. Smith and Donny Deutsch called for neither Trump nor New York City’s democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani to attend the Finals.
“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg offered a surprise defense of Trump, saying she supported his plan to attend the game – even if it required extra security measures.
“I’m sorry. Trump and Mayor Mamdani are Knicks fans, and have been. They’re New Yorkers,” Goldberg said Monday.
“Anybody who’s a Knicks fan should be there. You earned the right as a Knicks fan. I don’t care who you are. I don’t have to like you, I don’t have to dig you.”
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