President Donald Trump stepped before packed stands at Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black Friday to a mix of cheers and boos, briefly taking center stage at one of the biggest international golf competitions in the world.
The appearance by the president — an ardent golfer who owns several courses and has attended close to 10 major sporting events since returning to the White House in January — occasioned dueling demonstrations on Farmingdale streets, a massive security mobilization from local and national law enforcement, criticism from Democrats in Congress and a low flyover by military jets.
Traffic on area streets was snarled well into the afternoon, though that appeared to have more to do with tournament traffic than the president’s visit.
Trump’s Truth Social media feed showed a morning shift in focus from his approval rating and the purported risks of Tylenol for pregnant women to golf: “Flying over Ryder Cup, now! DJT” he posted, at 10:59 a.m.
He landed at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale just before 11:15 a.m., traveling with his granddaughter Kai Trump, herself an avid golfer.
Stopping to talk briefly to pool reporters at the airport, Trump was asked if he was looking forward to attending the Ryder Cup and whether he would give a pep talk to Team USA. He quipped that he was there to be “Knute Rockne,” invoking the legendary Notre Dame football coach whose speech famously inspired a comeback win.
“I heard the team is not doing so well. So when I heard that, I said, let’s get on the plane. We have to fly and help them. We have three matches and tied in one. So that’s, so we’ll get it, we’ll get it done one way or the, we’ll get it done,” Trump said.
On Friday morning, the USA team was struggling, with Europe ahead three matches to one just before noon. The Americans have won the last two times at home, although Europe has dominated by winning 10 of the last 14 times.
The stands were jam-packed and the mood was raucous, with thunderous “USA chants” greeting every American success on the course. Thousands more fans were behind the ropes out on the course.
Trump appeared shortly before noon, his presence signaled by an announcement over loudspeaker and thousands of fans’ cellphones taken out to record the moment. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman joined him in a glass-protected viewing area at the bottom of the stands. Trump could be seen on a giant video screen saluting during the national anthem, wearing a blue jacket and no tie with golf shoes. Four military jets soon flew over in tight diamond formation.
USA Team Captain Keegan Bradley appeared to acknowledge the president as he walked to the tee, giving a fighter’s one-two punch and bowing as he passed the glass viewing area.
Trump left the area around 12:30 p.m., giving the crowd a double fist pump and drawing USA chants.
The crowd’s reaction to the arrival and departure of the leader of the free world was muted, far quieter than when the final foursome of morning play approached the hole.
Later, in a statement sent by a spokesman, Blakeman, who greeted Trump at Republic and rode with him in the Beast, the armored presidential limo, said that “It was an honor to have President Trump in Nassau County for the Ryder Cup. The crowd loved him and his thoroughly enjoyed his time here. We had an extensive conversation about important issues concerning the nation and the region.”
The visit capped a roughly eight-month stretch in which the president — a WWE Hall of Fame member, would-be Mets owner and actual owner of a bygone professional football franchise, the New Jersey Generals — has attended a slew of sports events.
They include the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500, UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia, the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and the U.S. Open men’s final. The White House did not respond to a question about whether that busy schedule was part of a communications strategy or merely a sign that the man enjoys watching sports.
It could be both. “He’s much more present, verbal and opinionated when it comes to sport than any president before him,” said David Andrews, a University of Maryland professor and author of “Making Sport Great Again.” ”Being at a major sporting event does bring with it heightened visibility, and it allows people to clip you on social media.”
There was less fuss at Bethpage Friday than the president’s visit caused several weeks ago at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the men’s final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which delayed the start of the match and snarled entry for some fans with stadium tickets.
Fans moved quickly through magnetometers set up near the course entrance, though the grounds near Trump’s viewing area was heavily patrolled by law enforcement officers from Nassau County, New York State police and Secret Service.
Some fans complained of delays but much of the slowdown occurred hours before the president’s visit on area roads, not on the course itself. Heavy traffic turned what had been a 10-minute shuttle ride into an hour-long voyage.
“Get ready for the longest shortest trip of your life,” the driver of one shuttle bus told riders, truthfully.
Inside Bethpage, just past the security checkpoint at around 10:30 a.m., Massapequa Park resident Mike Mazol, retired from the airline catering industry, and Bob Van Nostrand, of West Islip, retired from the biotech industry, enjoyed morning cigars.
Mazol said it took him and his friends more than an hour to reach Bethpage on a shuttle bus that left from Farmingdale State College. If some of the delay was caused by Trump’s scheduled arrival, he said he didn’t mind: “I’d love to see him. I voted for him. … I think he likes sports.”
Van Nostrand said, “It shouldn’t take an hour to go 2 miles” and that authorities should have had more people directing traffic on area roads. “We still haven’t seen anybody hit a ball,” he said. “I feel for the people who paid a lot of money to come here from overseas.”
Those overseas visitors included Ruth and Lawrence Hughes, from the United Kingdom. Lawrence, a retired engineer, said they’d left their Manhattan hotel at 6:45 a.m. to get a 7:16 a.m. LIRR train to get to the course near tee time but had gotten snagged in traffic. He chalked that delay up to the presidential visit.
“Perhaps if he’d decided to come a little earlier, it would have made it a little easier,” he said. But the couple said they’d adopted a Zen-like approach to delays: “We get in when we get in. Otherwise, you go crackers,” Lawrence said.
Shortly after noon, a growing protest of about 90 people stood on the northwestern corner of Merritts Road and Conklin Steet in front of the Marquis Plaza shopping center. They waved American flags and held handmade signs calling for resistance to Trump. Trucks and cars honked in a cacophony as they passed. Demonstrators chanted pro-immigration slogans and “No Trump, No KKK, No fascist USA.”
Across the street a dozen Trump supporters waved also waved American flags as well as Trump flags.
Protesters chanted, rang cowbells and spoke with bullhorns. Nassau County police in black shirts walked around and watched the peaceful but loud protest and counter protest.
“I felt like I needed to lend my voice to the overall voice of dissent,” Allan Hunter, 66, a software developer from New Hyde Park said as he held a sign that said “We Don’t Do Kings in America.”
Joana Enea, 66, a retired student housing worker from South Hempstead, said she was protesting because “I am afraid for this country.”
Enea said she was disturbed by seeing “illegal immigrants getting rounded up without due process and getting deported without due process.”
“That’s not democracy, that’s not this country,” Enea said. She said it was important to stand against “fascism.”
Across the street, Trump supporters blasted music from speakers atop a white jeep.
“I’m here to support Donald Trump,” said Charlie Hart, 33, a mobile dog groomer from Farmingdale. “We’re here to stand for freedom.”
Pointing to the protesters across the street he said “They are actually the fascists who want to imprison their political opponents.”
Stephanie Liu, 60, a community health care representative originally from China, came from Astoria to support Trump.
“I’m a MAGA supporter,” Liu said. She said she likes Trump because “he fights for our country, for our freedom.”
An immigrant herself, Liu said Trump “isn’t against immigration, he’s against illegal immigration.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized Trump for attending the Ryder Cup, instead of being in Washington negotiating with Democrats ahead of a possible government shutdown.
“Donald Trump, as we speak, is at a golf tournament!” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, (D-Brooklyn), exclaimed to reporters at the Capitol.
“Get back to Washington D.C.! Why are you at a golf event right now — and the government is four days aways from closing?” Jeffries said.
White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsday that the blame fell not on Trump but on congressional Democrats, whom she said were holding the American people “hostage” by not voting for the Trump-backed short term spending plan.
“The only person Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats can blame for a government shutdown is themselves,” she wrote in an email.
Before Trump announced his plans, Ryder Cup organizers and local authorities already were planning for the usual logistical challenges of hosting an event expected to draw more than 250,000 attendees from more than 100 countries. Security operations include SWAT teams, trained dogs, tethered drones and undercover officers in the crowd.
Newsday’s Carl MacGowan, Howard Schnapp, Billy House and the AP contributed to this story.
