Trump attends Super Bowl in a presidential first

US President Donald Trump has become the first president in office to attend a Super Bowl after appearing at the Caesars Superdome.

After flying from Florida to New Orleans, the Republican president met on Sunday with participants in the honorary coin toss after he arrived at the Superdome, including relatives of victims of a deadly New Year's Day attack in the historic French Quarter, members of the police department and emergency personnel.

The match features two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Trump, who attended the Super Bowl in 1992, thinks the Chiefs will win, with Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes the difference-maker.

"I guess you have to say that when a quarterback wins as much as he's won, I have to go with Kansas City," Trump said in a taped interview with Fox News Channel's Brett Baier that aired during the pregame show.

Trump said Mahomes "really knows how to win. He's a great, great quarterback."

The president played football as a student at the New York Military Academy.

As a New York businessman in the early 1980s, he owned the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League.

Trump watched Sunday's game from a suite after flying in with a group of some of his closest Republican allies in Congress, including Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had said he'd also be in the suite with the president.

Trump saluted when the national anthem was sung.

Due to his attendance, security was tighter than normal, and there was a heavy police presence around the event.

Sportsman Trump

His interest in sports extends beyond American football. Trump is an avid golfer who owns multiple golf courses and has hosted tournaments.

He sponsored boxing matches at his former casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and attended a UFC match at Madison Square Garden weeks after winning a second term.

Trump played golf with Tiger Woods on Sunday in Florida, the White House said.

Some NFL team owners have donated to his campaigns, and Trump maintains friendships with Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie, who played for the Generals.

Trump has had a strained relationship with the NFL stretching back several decades and triggered uproar during his first time in 2017 when he said players should stand up to the national anthem instead of kneeling.

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Source: TRT