President Trump was booed — along with some cheers mixed in — at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Mr. Trump was seated with House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Congressman Peter King of New York and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Trump Jr. disputed they were booed at the event. In a tweet that was later retweeted by Mr. Trump, Trump Jr. wrote “when we walked into the arena it was overwhelmingly positive.”
Eric Trump tweeted the crowd was cheering “Donald Trump, Donald Trump … USA, USA.”
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Mr. Trump was booed earlier this week at the World Series in Washington, D.C.
Madison Square Garden appeared to be packed, according to pool reports. The venue has a capacity of 20,000.
There were reports of some protests outside the venue as well. Mr. Trump is very unpopular in New York City.
UFC 244 is headlined by a bout for the “BMF” championship between Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, according to CBS Sports. Masvidal has recently verbally battled with former teammate Colby Covington, an outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump and who is rarely seen outside the cage without a “Make America Great Again” hat.
Earlier this week, Masvidal called Mr. Trump a “cool motherf******.”
“I don’t want to get too much into politics though, you know, a lot of my Latin community might be upset at me so I’m not going to dabble into politics right now, my brother,” Masvidal said.
Mr. Trump has a long relationship with UFC. In 2001, Mr. Trump provided the league with a home at his Taj Mahal hotel in Atlantic City. UFC president Dana White enthusiastically endorsed Mr. Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
“Arenas around the world refused to host our events,” White had said in his speech at the convention. “Nobody took us seriously; nobody except Donald Trump. Donald was the first guy that recognized the potential that we saw in the UFC and encouraged us to build our business.”
Mr. Trump arrived in New York City earlier Saturday. He will spend the night at Trump Tower, his longtime home on 5th Avenue. Mr. Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, announced earlier this week that he changed his primary residence to Mar-a-Lago.
