(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Donald Trump made a Saturday outing to the Army-Navy game, joining allies including Elon Musk and two of his cabinet nominees to take in the storied football rivalry.
Among those attending along with Trump at Northwest Stadium outside Washington were Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Also joining Trump were Vice President-elect JD Vance and Senator-elect David McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican and former CEO of Bridgewater Associates. Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore, an Army veteran, was elsewhere in the crowd at Landover, Maryland.
“Should be a great game,” Trump said Saturday morning on his Truth Social media platform. He said he’d be there “to root on these fantastic young men.”
General Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in the box with Trump, according to Trump aide Margo Martin.
Vance, a US senator from Ohio, invited Daniel Penny to watch the game, less than a week after a Manhattan jury acquitted the 26-year-old former Marine of a homicide charge for the chokehold death of a Black subway passenger. The victim, Jordan Neely, struggled with mental illness and homelessness.
Penny, who says he was protecting himself and others, was celebrated for his actions in conservative circles.
“I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage,” Vance wrote on X. “Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted Penny’s case, also led the case that convicted Trump on 34 felony counts for falsified business records. Trump’s lawyers are trying to get the case dismissed after Trump’s election victory.
Several sitting presidents have attended the Army-Navy game since Theodore Roosevelt in 1901. Trump previously attended the competition between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen multiple times.
--With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron and Josh Wingrove.
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