By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR AT THE SUPER BOWL
There could be only one winner on Super Bowl Sunday. And to President Trump and his advisors, it had to be Donald Trump.
So with more than 100 million Americans set to tune into the big game, Trump decided to flood the zone with media appearances and threats against political rivals and even nations.
The president and his team hatched a plan for a trip that culminated with images of Trump being plastered on TV screens worldwide during the National Anthem, following a week when he has upended national and global politics.
It came on a wild day where Trump even devised a way to generate media buzz during the 90-minute flight between West Palm Beach and New Orleans – inviting a pool reporters including DailyMail.com up to the front of Air Force One en route to the matchup.
Trump declared it a historic flight over body of water he is re-designating the Gulf of America, something the Air Force One pilot announced after an aide read a proclamation.
‘This will be even bigger than the Super Bowl,’ Trump told the press over international waters south of Alabama, even though he had already announced the change and Google maps was already showing it.
Trump had already cut a big TV interview with Bret Baier of Fox News which put him before a huge pre-game audience.
But the president was clearly itching to engage with the traveling press who press him on politics and policy, after laying relatively low publicly for 36 hours — creating a build-up.
Then his team assembled the press, shepherding them back from the aft of the plane and past a bevy of senators who had hitched a ride, after trekking to Mar-a-Lago to hear a 35-minute speech Friday night.
Trump opened the floodgates. He defended slashing cuts to U.S. university science research and foreign aid, as well as his decision to snatch security clearances from political rivals. He hammered judges who have been ruling against Elon Musk’s moves in the agencies.
President Donald Trump orchestrated a first-ever Super Bowl visit by a sitting president, and was shown on the jumbotron during the National Anthem
‘No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It’s a disgrace,’ Trump intoned when DailyMail.com asked him about it.
His son, Eric, turned the tables and posted an image of the press crowded around his father, showing Trump in command.
‘It’s official! Proclamation signed aboard Air Force 1 above the Gulf Of America!,’ Eric posted, while his wife Lara lingered outside an interior room of the Boeing 747.
Doug Burgum, Trump’s billionaire Interior Secretary, was reduced to holding a poster board proclaiming ‘Gulf of America,’ although he did get to announce the official name change by an agency division.
Through his relentless display, Trump made it sound like he was as hungry to settle a score as the Eagles, who had lost to Kansas City two years ago.
His predecessor Joe Biden – whose security clearance Trump yanked on Friday night in yet another shock move – had foregone the Super Bowl interview last year, several months before his party dumped him after his debate disaster.
‘We don’t think he knows what he’s doing and what he’s done to this country is a disgrace,’ Trump said, well as he is wrapped up his third week in office.
The comparison was hard to ignore for Democrats who had fretted about Biden’s ability to beat Trump.
‘A year ago, Biden refused the traditional Super Bowl interview and the unparalleled audience it would have yielded. That bewildering decision was a major sign of trouble. Trump is all over it today,’ said former Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod.
Trump saluted during the National Anthem and got shown on screen
Trump declared his Gulf designation ‘bigger than the Super Bowl.’ His team used the event to flood the zone with Trump, a year after President Biden eschewed a Super Bowl interview
Daughter Ivanka traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One
Billionaire Interior Secretary Doug Burgum held the map
Republican senators boarded Air Force One for the trip
Up front of the plane, Trump was eager to break news – announcing new 25 percent steel tariffs Monday, and happy to engage even when pressed on pardoning January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers.
Asked about taking away security clearances from New York AG Letitia James and other rivals, Trump doubled down and went after Biden.
He blasted a federal judge who ruled against Elon Musk’s Treasury Department plans.
‘No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It’s a disgrace,’ Trump said.
He even suggested the US might not protect Canada, a NATO ally.
‘The reason they don’t pay much is they assume we’re going to protect them. That’s not an assumption they can make because why are we protecting another country?’ he said.
Trump’s White House communications director Steven Cheung declared a political win as decisive as the Eagles’ ferocious first half.
‘President Trump continues to be the center of the cultural universe. There is nobody on Earth who can receive the admiration of hundreds of millions of people and also command the attention of every single media outlet in the world quite like he can,’ he told DailyMail.com when asked about the effort.
The big moment came when Trump appeared on the jumbo-tron inside the Super Dome in New Orleans 20 seconds into the National Anthem.
The move drew loud boos as well inside the packed stadium, but that hardly mattered to Trump’s team. Their strategy for the game was just as it has been for Democrats in Congress, the agencies facing cuts, and campaign opponents: dominate.
Images from Trump’s luxury box showed him saluting amid a huge assembly in the shape of the American flag below.
There were also a smattering of jeers mixed in with cheers when Trump first entered the stadium through the Kansas City Chiefs tunnel to walk on the field, in a Democratic city in a heavily MAGA state.
Trump held a brief meeting with first responders and families of people who tied in the horrific ISIS attack on Bourbon Street after New Year’s.
Asked how she thought the president’s entrance went, chief of staff Susie Wiles told DailyMail.com: ‘Good, right?’
Inside the stadium, New Orleans native and education consultant Beverly Dancer didn’t mind Trump’s appearance.
‘He can do what he wants, right?’ she said. ‘I didn’t come here for Trump. I didn’t come her for Barack. I came here to party, baby!’ she said.
