President Donald Trump was cheered by fans as he entered the arena at Madison Square Garden in New York City for UFC 244 — but there were also boos.
Videos by fans showed the response to Trump, such as the following:
Early mainstream media reports focused on the fact that there were boos, as did Trump’s critics on social media:
However, the New York Post reported, there were more cheers than boos:
The Post story noted that Trump received “more cheers than boos,” and “had very vocal supporters inside and outside the World’s Most Famous arena.”
Donald Trump, Jr. retweeted the Post article, with a snide comment — and his tweet was retweeted by the president himself. President Trump also tweeted a photo taken at the event by Eric Trump that reported chants of “Donald Trump” and “USA”:
The Post also reported that supporters and opponents of the President both gathered outside the arena — and that supporters outnumbered opponents, two-to-one.
Trump and his family were at the event for the main attraction, the fight for the title of “BMF” (“Baddest Motherf**ker”), between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz.
Masvidal had praised Trump earlier in the week:
“No matter what your views are on Trump as a president, the guy’s a bad mother f*ucker, man,” Masvidal said. “The money that he’s made, the obstacles that he’s conquered — he’s a bad mother f*cker in his own way, you know, no matter what your political views are.”
Trump and his family are long-standing UFC fans. Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump both watched Colby Covington — a proud Trump supporter — win a fight in August.
Other Republicans joined Trump at the fight, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Pete King (R-NY).
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.