NEW YORK — President Donald Trump attended a New York Yankees game Thursday night to mark the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, after honoring the memories of the victims at the Pentagon earlier in the day.
Trump stopped by the Yankees’ locker room prior to their 9-3 victory against the Detroit Tigers. He shook hands with the players and team staff members, and he talked about being close for years with late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, calling him “a great friend of mine, the whole family.”
Trump correctly predicted the Yankees would win, noting of his past attendance at games with Steinbrenner: “We won every time I came.”
“You’re gonna win,” Trump told the Yankees. “… I want to wish you guys a lot of luck. You’re great players.”
He later added: “You’re going to go all the way, and you’ll get in the playoff — and I think we’ll start off, how about tonight? We’ll start from tonight on, and you’re going to do well.”
The Yankees had lost the first two games of the series against the Tigers by a combined score of 23-3.
Manager Aaron Boone announced before Trump’s arrival that Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe had quietly been playing with a partial labrum tear in his left shoulder. As he greeted him, Trump patted Volpe softly on the shoulder.
President Donald Trump is in attendance at the Tigers vs. Yankees game. pic.twitter.com/WXm3kAdxjg
— ESPN (@espn) September 11, 2025
A presidential visit always prompts extra security at sporting events, but things were heightened after conservative activist and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in Utah on Wednesday. When Trump attended the Sept. 11 observance ceremony at the Pentagon earlier Thursday, authorities moved the ceremony inside as an added precaution.
Authorities installed security glass outside an upper-level suite on the third-base side, over the visiting Tigers dugout, for the president. During the national anthem, Trump was shown on the stadium’s jumbotron.
Moments earlier, as he first took his seat, the president briefly waved to the crowd and flashed a thumbs-up.
He sat next to Yankees team president Randy Levine and chatted with him throughout the game.
Later, when “YMCA” was played, Trump spelled out the letters with his arms but stayed seated.
“It’s something that I’m excited to be a part of,” Boone said of Trump being on hand.
The president left shortly after the seventh-inning stretch, which featured the singing of “God Bless America” — as it traditionally does at Yankees games on Sept. 11 — in addition to the traditional “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Trump was shown on the big screen three times in quick succession and the announcer said, “Welcome back, New York’s own, the 45th and 47th President.”
Among the announced crowd of nearly 41,000, that prompted cheers of “USA! USA!” and some chants of Trump’s last name as he stood, grinned and pumped his fist in a downward motion.
Tonight, we join all of Major League Baseball in observing a moment of silence for the victims, survivors, heroes, and all those impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/Rhhq7E703L
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 11, 2025
Even before Trump left the White House, security at the stadium was tight. Every entrance featured metal detectors and Secret Service agents, some with sniffer dogs, while New York Police Department helicopters thundered overhead.
Stadium authorities opened the gates three hours before the first pitch, and long lines began forming even before that. The Yankees said ticket holders were “strongly urged to arrive as early as possible.”
The Secret Service also posted a statement saying extra time would be necessary and asked fans to “consider leaving your bags at home to help speed up the security screening process.”
Trump’s attendance at the US Open men’s final in Queens last weekend sparked long security lines. Some fans didn’t make it to their seats until more than an hour into the match despite organizers delaying its start by 30 minutes.
The game is Trump’s eighth major sporting event since returning to the White House in January. He attended 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 last weekend’s US Open match.
His appearance marks the third time a sitting president has visited Yankee Stadium for a game, following George W. Bush in 2001 and Warren G. Harding, who came in 1923, the same year the original Yankee Stadium opened.
The Yankee Stadium scoreboard featured a large MLB logo over an American flag and a red, white and blue ribbon under the inscription “September 11, 2001, We Shall Not Forget.”
The large American flag behind the left-field bleachers and the smaller flags for each of baseball’s 30 teams that ring the stadium’s upper level were lowered to half-staff after Trump issued an executive order honoring Kirk.
Trump was born in the New York borough of Queens, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he “remains a New Yorker at heart.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
