President Donald Trump was hailed with a chorus of boos on Monday night while attending Game 3 of the NBA finals to watch his hometown New York Knicks face off against the San Antonio Spurs.
Trump—the first sitting president to attend an NBA finals game—went as the guest of Knicks owner James Dolan, a long-time friend of the President who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his presidential campaigns.
Trump’s planned attendance drew vocal backlash even before he set foot in Madison Square Garden on Monday. The President, already widely unpopular in the blue city, sparked further outrage from Knicks fans when the increased security necessitated by his presence led to a highly anticipated watch party previously set to take place outside the arena being canceled.
The Knicks meanwhile warned fans attending the game to expect “enhanced security measures” for the roughly 20,000-person arena, telling them to arrive “at least” two hours ahead of the game and to limit what they brought with them to “an absolute minimum.”
Trump’s attendance on Monday has drawn criticism from Democratic New York lawmakers as well.
“Knicks fans just want to enjoy Game 3,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Monday, sporting a Knicks cap. “It’s not clear to me that Donald Trump is a big Knicks fan … He’s just injecting himself into the NBA finals because he always has to bring the MAGA circus into town, and that’s unfortunate.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on an Instagram story Sunday that Trump’s attendance “already has been a vibe killer, because now the city has to shut down all the MSG watch parties that happen outside of the arena.” She called the watch parties outside of the Garden “the source of so much fun for everybody.”
“Sports are at the forefront of American culture, and President Trump loves them as the people’s president,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told TIME in a statement ahead of t
