Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl on Sunday night but he didn’t appear to enjoy the experience as he later claimed the sport had been “ruined” after making a brutal dig at Taylor Swift.
Trump had predicted a win for the Kansas City Chiefs, giving high praise to quarterback and three-time champion Patrick Mahomes, but the president left Super Bowl LIX more than an hour early as his team fell short. It ended with the Philadelphia Eagles securing victory with a 40-22 win.
Following his early departure from the Caesars Superdome, the 78-year-old took to his Truth Social platform to complain about the NFL’s new kickoff rule, which was implemented for this season. He wrote: “The worst part of the Super Bowl, by far, was watching the Kickoff where, as the ball is sailing through the air, the entire field is frozen, stiff. College Football does not do it, and won’t! Whose idea was it to ruin the Game?”
The league had introduced the new rule “to address the lowest kickoff return rate in NFL history during the 2023 season and an unacceptable injury rate on kickoffs,” according to the NFL’s website. Trump’s complaint came after the president also took a swipe at Taylor Swift, who left teary-eyed after attending the Super Bowl in support of her Chiefs boyfriend Travis Kelce.
Posting from what was likely Air Force One while en route back to Florida, Trump said: “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!” Trump had shared a clip of himself surrounded by cheering fans alongside another clip that appeared to capture Taylor Swift and Ice Spice being booed as they appeared on the stadium’s Skycam.
While attending the Super Bowl, Trump also announced on Truth Social that he’d ordered the US Treasury to stop producing pennies, as he called them “wasteful”. He wrote: “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!”
Trump added: “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.” Trump’s appearance at Super Sunday came shortly after he revealed he’s serious about his suggestion that Canada should become the “51st state” in the US.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently warned the country’s business leaders that Trump’s desire to absorb Canada is a “real thing”. When asked by Fox News host Bret Baier whether the threat is indeed a “real thing”, Trump responded: “Yes it is.”
Trump claimed Canada “would be much better off” as a US state as he complained about the $200billion the US pays to the country each year. The Trump administration has previously said this number is based on defense spending which Canada benefits from as well as the US’ trade deficit with Canada.
