ASHBURN, Va. — President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Washington Commanders’ game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Northwest Stadium. It will be the first time a sitting U.S. president has attended an NFL game at the Landover, Md., stadium.
“We are honored to welcome President Trump to the game as we celebrate those who have served and continue to serve our country,” Commanders president Mark Clouse said in a statement. “The entire Commanders organization is proud to participate in the NFL’s league-wide Salute to Service initiative, recognizing the dedication and sacrifice of our nation’s veterans, active-duty service members, and their families this Sunday.”
Sunday’s game will be the first NFL contest that Trump has attended since February, when he became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl. Trump was on the field before the start of Super Bowl LIX, shaking hands with Kansas City Chiefs players before watching the game from a VIP suite.
On Sunday, Trump will sit in the Commanders’ owners suite alongside the team’s managing partner, Josh Harris, according to a league source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the plans.
It’s been more than 47 years since a sitting president attended an NFL game that wasn’t the Super Bowl. On Oct. 2, 1978, a Monday night, then-president Jimmy Carter attended Washington’s 9-5 win over the Dallas Cowboys at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. The first sitting president to attend a non-Super Bowl NFL game was Richard Nixon, who was at Washington’s 41-28 loss to the Cowboys on Nov. 16, 1969 at RFK Stadium.
Trump has an extensive recent history with the Commanders. In May, Trump — alongside Harris, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser — announced at the White House that Washington, D.C. would host the 2027 NFL Draft.
“It’s going to be beautiful,” Trump said during an Oval Office news conference. “It’s going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate, I don’t suspect.”
Two months later, Trump threatened to derail the Commanders’ deal to build a $3.8 billion stadium at the site of RFK Stadium if they didn’t change their name back to Washington Redskins, which had been denounced as a racist slur. The team dropped that name in 2020 and became the Commanders in 2022.
The Commanders’ stadium deal was approved by the D.C. Council in September. Harris said in February that the team is sticking with Commanders as its name. This season, the team launched a branding campaign around the name to try to tie in its past with its future.
“We’re embracing the Commanders name,” Harris said. “… A commander is a leader of warriors. … We think being in Washington, [we should] embrace people in the service community. … We’re staying with it.”
Since returning to the White House for his second term as president, Trump has attended numerous sporting events, including Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, UFC fights in Miami and New Jersey; the Daytona 500; the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia; the FIFA Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium; the U.S. Open men’s tennis final and the Ryder Cup.
