Trump sings parts of anthem at football game
January 9, 2018
US President Donald Trump received a mixed welcome from American football fans on Monday evening as he attended the college championship game between the University of Georgia and the University of Atlanta.
Trump walked onto the field to take part in the national anthem ahead of the game while tens of thousands of fans packed in the stadium greeted him with cheers and some boos.
Read more: Hertha Berlin 'take a knee' before game in solidarity with NFL players
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., denied reports that his father had been booed in the stadium, writing on Twitter: "Sounds like some serious cheering to me."
The president then put his hand over his heart and sang along to a few words of the "Star-Spangled Banner" but stayed silent at other times of the anthem.
Some on social media latched on to the president's more silent moments during the song, suggesting he might have forgotten the words. Voice actor and former college basketball player Josiah Johnson posted a video of Trump singing along to the anthem at the game on Twitter:
Others, however, praised the president for his "patriotism" during the singing of the anthem, with the Republican Party tweeting a Fox News video showing the president completing the words at the end of the song.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly criticized professional football players in the NFL for kneeling during the anthem to protest racial injustice. He has also taken the NFL to task for not introducing a rule forbidding such player protests. Trump and supporters say that kneeling during the anthem is a sign of disrespect.
"We want our flag respected," Trump said prior to the game on Monday during a speech in Nashville, Tennessee, "and we want our national anthem respected also."
Read more: The two sides of the US national anthem protests in the NFL
The football players for Monday's game remained in their locker rooms for the anthem, as is typical for college games.
One camera near the locker room where the Alabama players were exiting appeared to show one player shouting an expletive. Although the player in question, Bo Scarbrough, said on Twitter that he had shouted "Georgia" after the expletive, not "Trump."
Read more: NFL stars defy Donald Trump's call for boycott
Trump watched the game from a private box before departing the stadium at halftime. During the break, rapper Kendrick Lamar, a vocal critic of the president, performed.
Alabama ended up beating Georgia 26-23 in overtime.
rs/msh (AP, AFP)