It was just the authoritarian image Donald Trump hoped to project at the US Open: the president himself, looming from Arthur Ashe Stadium’s giant screens like Chairman Mao at Tiananmen Gate, as he stood at attention for the national anthem. But there was no denying that, while the picture was there, the sound clashed. The burst of cheers that went up for his stiff salute on Sunday was quickly drowned out by a chorus of boos made louder from the Ashe roof being closed for rain – perhaps fitting given that many fans had been left to stand in the wet and endure the long security lines that resulted from his attendance. In that awkward five-second moment, as the Stars and Stripes was unfurled on center court, the president smirked at the negative reaction. It surely rang so familiar.
Trump’s presence at the US Open men’s final wasn’t just intended as a soft power grab, the kind of routine stunt Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and the other despots he admires pull all the time at sports events – except with recruitment ads for Ice playing across the US. No, Trump’s presence was intended as a distraction. Not a distraction for him; lord knows, he couldn’t care less about the actual match, a fact that was reinforced when Trump left his luxury box seat to step inside and kibitz with a phalanx of suck-ups. No, Trump’s visit was dropped like a flash bang to divert attention from klaxoning recession indicators, rumbling speculation about his health and, naturally, those files about that guy whose name must not be mentioned.
If Trump was motivated by a patriotic love for tennis, he would have rocked up a day earlier for the women’s final. But for Trump the prospect of cheering on Jersey girl Amanda Anisimova and her epic comeback story clearly wasn’t juicy enough, much less the idea of actually sharing the spotlight with an American player. So Sunday’s match-up between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz was retrofitted for Trump’s calliope Maga stage. Before the tilt Alcaraz, a Spaniard, was asked about playing in front of the president, and stepped right into the trap. “For me, playing in front of him, I don’t want myself to be nervous,” he said, not realizing his words would soon become fodder for Fox and Friends. “I think it’s great for tennis to have the president into the final.”
Former presidents have shown that you can appear at a US Open without making it about ego: the Obamas were clearly caught up in supporting a US player when they watched Frances Tiafoe battle Alcaraz in the 2022 semi-final. Bill Clinton was proudly Team USA, too. In 2000, in his final weeks as president, he broke away from the UN Millennium Summit for Pete Sampras’s semi-final against Lleyton Hewitt, joining John McEnroe in the commentary box and signing balls fans lobbed up to him as Secret Service minders looked on and snipers lined the stadium upper deck. Clinton also visited Sampras in the locker room after the loss to Hewitt, which postponed the American’s epic quest for a then-record 14th grand slam. In 2009 Clinton returned and gave the keynote speech for Arthur Ashe’s induction into the US Open’s Court of Champions. He remembered Ashe’s triumphs over segregation, apartheid and his efforts to open his sport up to under-resourced and represented communities.
Trump’s presence on Sunday – under the Ashe stadium marquee, on grounds named for gender and LGBTQ+ pioneer Billie Jean King, at a tournament that makes a point of touting its unwavering commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion – didn’t just strike a marked contrast. It broke from the markedly lower profiles of past presidents and was over-the-top, even for a sport that regularly hosts royal families. But Trump simply couldn’t pass up the optics. Getting booed by a multicultural east coast crowd that laps up $23 cocktails and $100 caviar-dolloped chicken nuggets without irony is red meat his base would devour. And getting that last laugh would make for satisfying personal revenge, an urgent second-term theme.
For 40 years Trump exploited the US Open for clout, calling attention to himself, his luxury box perch and all the bold-faced names who joined him inside. But the New York crowd – the heart of the Open – never cottoned to his faux-gold flash and didn’t hesitate to jeer his big screen pop-ups even then. After the golden escalator ride to kick off his 2015 presidential campaign and the fiery announcement speech hitting out at immigrants and foreigners, he effectively became spectator non-grata in Flushing. Months later he attended the US Open semi-final between Venus and Serena Williams and heard more boos as he slunk away with Melania, out of the stadium’s “President’s Gate”. So it meant something for him on Sunday to be back 10 years later, at the same event that was once the crown jewel of CBS and a lead-in for 60 Minutes – two more institutions he is determined to get even with – and back in the hometown he has repeatedly threatened to invade. That is, when he’s not outright declaring war on Chicago.
Before Trump’s arrival in his native borough of Queens, as foot soldiers from homeland security and other federal agencies swept the US Open campus, the USTA seemed as if it might do more to accommodate him than Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour – who had reportedly invited the president to the company’s luxury suite in hopes of catching a break on US tariffs imposed on Switzerland. No doubt Trump would have sat in the umpire’s chair if that were an option. The day before the men’s final, news broke that the USTA had issued a memo to broadcasters urging them to avoid showing any dissent against Trump in a craven display of anticipatory obedience that the federation cowardly justified in an 11-word statement. (We thought the former reality show host was supposed to be against unfair editing …) In the moments Trump actually seemed to be paying attention to Sunday’s match, he didn’t really cheer or applaud – which is weird but not surprising. He had made the day about himself, after all.
And yet: just when it seemed as if the USTA couldn’t bow down any lower, intentionally or not, it may have pulled off a canny rope-a-dope. Perhaps mindful of the president’s avarice for stolen valor, they set the US Open men’s trophy inside the Rolex box for Trump’s arrival, and then switched it for a doubles cup after the anthem. Breaking with its own edict, the USTA not only showed Trump on the big screen again during the changeover between the first and second sets, it pushed in and held the shot for 20 seconds. The crowd, much larger this time, booed him so long and lustily that it was hard not to be reminded of the harsh reception to Trump at the 2019 World Series. Later on Sunday, the camera cut to noted Trump bugbear Bruce Springsteen – triggering a roar of approval that nearly blew the Ashe roof off.
Unlike Fifa at July’s Club World Cup final, the USTA ensured Trump’s Rolex perch became a prison by the end of the match, so Alcaraz could keep up the winner’s tradition of climbing into the crowd to embrace their support team. Trump could only watch, like a kid on punishment seeing his friends play outside, as someone other than him presented the trophy to Alcaraz – because, well, he’s no competition for Ivan Lendl and much better men than Trump have tried taking trophies from the former No 1. After the pomp and circumstance, Trump was gone – back on the road within minutes of match point and in the air not long thereafter, according to the White House pool report. The outsized security presence that turned Sunday’s showcase into an authoritarian spectacle disappeared in his wake, too. For many fans who had suffered through it all, his departure was more cause for celebration.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice, once said of her father that “he wants to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, and the baby at every christening.” But the line fits Trump even better. As long as there is attention to be had, you can bet he’ll find a way to make himself the center of it and make sport of self-aggrandizement, regardless of who, or what, he may trample over on his march.
