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Donald Trump is set to attend the Super Bowl showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, The Independent understands.
Specific details of the president’s trip to New Orleans for the game, which is taking place at the Caesar’s Superdome on Sunday, have not been disclosed.
Trump is the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl, and his presence comes amid feverish security preparations in the city, in the week of the deadly New Year’s Eve terror attack, in which 14 people were killed and scores more were injured.
According to The Guardian, the president will also sit down for a pre-recorded interview that will be aired on the pregame show for Fox, this year’s broadcaster for the Super Bowl.
Former president Joe Biden declined to sit down for a Super Bowl interview in 2023 and 2024, and Trump also declined in 2018 during his first term.
The president is a keen sports fan and has previously been known to attend high-profile sporting events, including MMA matches and college football playoff games.
Trump has not said which team he will be supporting on Sunday, though several members of the Kansas City Chiefs, including kicker Harrison Butker and Brittany Mahomes, the wife of star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, have aligned themselves with the MAGA movement.
The president also congratulated the Chiefs when they reached the Super Bowl by beating the Buffalo Bills, writing: “What a GREAT Team, Coach, Quarterback, and virtually everything else, including those fantastic FANS, that voted for me (MAGA!) in record numbers.”
He said nothing about the Eagles victory over the Washington Commanders.
The president’s visit to New Orleans for the game will no doubt mean further security, despite measures prompted by the New Year’s Eve attack.
At the time, Trump described the mass-killing event as an “act of pure evil” but used the incident to attack migrants and immigration, despite police later confirming the dead suspect was a U.S citizen. In a post on Truth Social, the president claimed that immigrants were more likely to commit worse crimes than U.S. citizens.
“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” he said.
“The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”
It is unclear when the president will travel to New Orleans ahead of the game, and whether he will visit any memorials for the victims of the New Year’s Eve attack.
