The “Army vs. Navy” game is a must-see event on the American college football calendar, an event that has virtually no equivalent in American sports culture. And Donald Trump knows it only too well: the President of the United States is attending this Saturday for the 7th time this match which is wowing tens of millions of spectators across the Atlantic.
Barely an hour before kick-off, he promised terrible vengeance to the assassins of three American nationals, including two soldiers, who died in Syria. But he did not cancel his presence at the match, quite the contrary.
“I’m about to land at Fort McHenry for a short trip to the Army-Navy game. Everyone asks me who do I support, Army or Navy? My response: You’re kidding if you think I’m going to give you that answer! “, he said from Air Force One.
The “Black Knights” and “Midshipmen”, the nicknames of the two teams, are desperate to fight against each other, with the sole aim of gaining bragging rights for the next twelve months and taunting their colleagues from the other weapons. For Donald Trump, it is a formidable political sounding board.
6 meetings in two terms, zero for Joe Biden
In 2016, about a month after being elected to his first term, Trump said in a CBS interview that he didn’t know if the Army-Navy game was “necessarily the best football,” but “I love the armed forces,” he said. “I love these people. Their spirit is incredible. I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best football, but it’s very good. But damn, they have a spirit. More than anyone else. It’s magnificent! », he enthused at the time.
Donald Trump has since attended six meetings between the two teams as president-elect or in office, a record! Since 1901, ten sitting U.S. presidents have attended the Army-Navy game. Four of the final five attended the game at least once during their tenure.
The only exception is… Joe Biden, who conducted the ceremonial coin toss before the game in 2012, when he was vice president, but never attended during his tenure in the White House. A detail which of course did not escape his historical opponent, who has since continued to pose as the father of the Nation, but also a way of underlining his role as “Commander-in-Chief” of the armies, in an outrageously patriotic country.
Trump and military symbols
Another reason to be present this year for Donald Trump: the location of the meeting. The 2025 edition of the Army-Navy match takes place in Baltimore, at M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, a team of the all-powerful NFL, with whom it has often been in conflict.
But his presence among the military rather supports another political project. Last September, Trump raised the possibility of sending the National Guard to Baltimore, which he called “hell.” “We have the right to do it because I have an obligation to do it to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore,” the Republican leader said.
Baltimore’s Democratic Mayor, Brandon Scott, responded by citing the city’s declining violent crime rate, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore called the National Guard’s role as municipal police “theatrical and unsustainable” while inviting Donald Trump to a public safety visit to Baltimore at a date and time of his choosing.
The American president finally chose to be present this Saturday early evening in the eastern United States. He was even the one who threw the “toss” in the middle of the field after the national anthem, shaking hands with the players, all military. Quite a symbol.
