Super Bowl 2025: Donald Trump makes history without Melania
Donald Trump has become the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl at Caesars Superdome, where he was joined by family and friends. But an important person was missing.
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Donald Trump has become the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl - but where was the First Lady, Melania?
Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints, hosted Mr Trump in her luxury suite at the Caesars Superdome for the Kansas City Chiefs v Philadelphia Eagle game.
His second-eldest son Eric and his wife Lara, daughter Ivanka and her son Theodore were also spotted in the VIP area.
The NFL’s longtime commissioner Roger Goodell was also seated with Mr Trump and Prince Albert II of Monaco made a surprise appearance.
Mr Trump was also joined by Republicans Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, and congressman-turned National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
But the always stylish Melania was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she doesn’t like football?
Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, the US President met with family members and victims of the New Year’s terrorist attack in New Orleans.
He also released a message saying he was looking forward to joining the fans in New Orleans to cheer on “two great teams” that embodied “the best of the American Dream”.
“Their hard work, dedication, and tenacity is admirable, and their individual journeys are as inspiring as the drive and determination that has led them to this extraordinary moment,” Mr Trump said.
“They also represent the hopes and dreams of our Nation’s young athletes as we restore safety and fairness in sports and equal opportunities among their teams.
“Football is America’s most popular sport – for good reason – it fosters a sense of national unity, bringing families, friends, and fans together and strengthening communities.”
The US President earlier golfed with Tiger Woods at Trump International Golf Club in Florida before boarding Air Force One for New Orleans.
Mr Trump and Woods have become close over the years. Woods announced the death of his mother, Kultida, last week to which Mr Trump offered his condolences.
Kultida Woods was with her son in 2019 when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Mr Trump.
“I was just informed that Tiger Woods’ wonderful Mother, Kultida, passed away – She has gone onto greener fairways!” Mr Trump wrote in a post. “Kultida Woods was an amazing influence on Tiger, and gave him much of his strength and brilliance. Melania and I send our love and prayers to Tiger and his incredible family!”
Mr Trump’s appearance as the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl will write a new chapter in an often-strained relationship with the NFL that has been marked by decades of animosity.
A keen sports fan, Mr Trump’s links to America’s most popular sport stretch back to the early 1980s, when he first sought to join the exclusive club of NFL team owners by attempting to purchase the Baltimore Colts.
Thwarted on that occasion, he went on to buy a team in the United States Football League (USFL), set up as a spring-summer alternative to the autumn-winter NFL.
Mr Trump was subsequently the driving force behind an acrimonious lawsuit filed by the USFL which accused the NFL of operating a monopoly, with the goal of forcing a USFL-NFL merger.
Although a jury found in favour of Mr Trump’s USFL, the league was awarded only $3 in damages, effectively leading to the league’s decision to close in 1986 amid multimillion-dollar losses.
Mr Trump’s first presidential term, meanwhile, witnessed a series of running battles against the NFL and its players, most notably following Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the playing of the US national anthem in protest at racial injustice.
“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. He’s fired!’” Mr Trump roared at a September 2017 rally in Alabama.
That led to a wave of player protests across the NFL, with more than 200 players kneeling during the national anthem in solidarity with Kaepernick and in defiance of Mr Trump’s rhetoric.
“Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in response to Mr Trump’s remarks.
Several teams from the NFL and other sports opted to skip the traditional White House reception offered to championship-winning teams in a snub to Mr Trump.
The Philadelphia Eagles, Super Bowl winners in the 2017-2018 season, were disinvited by the White House after several players said they would not attend.
Yet just like the expansion of his electoral base during the presidential campaign, Mr Trump has gradually found a foothold in sport over the past year.
On Monday he welcomed the Florida Panthers ice hockey team to the White House in recognition of their National Hockey League championship victory last season.
A day later, the White House confirmed that Mr Trump would become the first US president to attend the Super Bowl in person, joining around 74,000 other fans.
Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville University in New York, said Mr Trump’s decision to attend the Super Bowl was “political.”
“Even if he is going because he loves football … it is a political move because he is the president of the United States and everything he does is political,” she told AFP.
Some have interpreted the NFL’s decision to remove the words “End Racism” from the end zone at this weekend’s Super Bowl as a concession to the “anti-woke” stance of the new Trump administration.
However NFL chief Goodell insisted that the league remained firmly committed to diversity programs, despite the Trump administration’s calls for similar initiatives in government and elsewhere to be scrapped.
“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League … we’ve proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better,” Mr Goodell said.
Players at the Super Bowl have reacted positively to Mr Trump’s attendance, with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce calling it a “great honour.”
That could potentially lead to some awkwardness between Kelce and his pop icon girlfriend, Taylor Swift.
Swift endorsed Trump’s election rival Kamala Harris last year, prompting Trump to write on social media: “I hate Taylor Swift.”
The Super Bowl’s high-profile halftime concert on Sunday could also be an opportunity for anti-Trump sentiment, with rapper Kendrick Lamar, who has been critical of the president in the past, headlining the show.
Professor Bass wonders how fans at the Superdome might respond on Sunday, given the Eagles’ recent history with Trump following the 2018 row.
“Here’s the thing about using a stadium or a ballpark as a political arena: you have absolutely no idea what the crowd is going to do, because you, the politician, are not why anyone is there,” Professor Bass said.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a city that hates Donald Trump more than Philadelphia, so … might they be disrespectful? Yes. And that’s a shame. Because the office of the president deserves respect.
“But Donald Trump changed the rules on respect, so all’s fair.”
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Originally published as Super Bowl 2025: Donald Trump makes history without Melania