Donald Trump is about to get booed. Expect him to react poorly.

The first president to attend the NBA Finals won't be greeted like a beloved commander in chief. He'll be heckled for corruption.

Image credit: Spectrum News NY1/Richard Agostinoni.

I’m a little bit amazed that White House staff let Donald Trump talk himself into going to a sporting event tonight… where he’s going to be mercilessly booed.

The Washington Post is one of the few publications that has picked up on this. As Dan Diamond wrote this morning, in an article entitled: “Shower of boos expected when Trump becomes first sitting president to attend NBA Finals,”

Trump said he will watch Game 3 of the best-of-seven series between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs as the guest of Knicks owner James Dolan. Some sports fans and analysts have urged Trump not to attend the game — commentator Stephen A. Smith said it would create an unnecessary spectacle — or pledged to jeer the president.

Online betting services are already forecasting that he will get booed upon entering Madison Square Garden.

I said that I was “amazed” above because, as someone who once helped manage the environments a national leader walks into, I can tell you that you don’t usually set them up to get savaged. That is, unless that leader lives in a sycophantic echo chamber. And everyone is scared to tell him or her the truth.

That’s why tonight’s trip to Madison Square Garden is so revealing, in my view. Donald Trump is voluntarily stepping outside the bubble his staff spends every waking hour constructing, into a building full of New Yorkers who voted against him overwhelmingly and hardly need new reasons to boo at him. They will relish this opportunity. Yet Trump is somehow convinced that he’s loved by New Yorkers. And I suspect that’s because his messianically adoring second-term staff is too weak to tell him that he’s loathed by New Yorkers and about to get the full NYC welcome.

What’s more, New Yorkers have watched him turn the presidency into the national version of an overpriced concession stand. They’re pissed off about it, like we all are. Ordinary Americans have been struggling to afford soaring prices with their shrinking wallets, while Trump has been converting our American presidency into his personal brand — pardoning donors, monetizing access, producing cash-for-criminals schemes that would make the mob blush, treating the Treasury like a tip jar, and treating the rest of us like his personal ATM machine.

A Knicks crowd isn’t going to need a lot of prodding to boo him out of the building.

He’ll scowl and squint his eyes. Then he’ll wave it off as a “hostile” crowd and watch the game. Sometime later tonight or in the morning, as long as the booing goes viral, he’ll post something petulant and unhinged. Perhaps he’ll claim Madison Square Garden was “rigged” against him. Surely the Democrats bought out all the seats — of what might be the most expensive game to attend ever — just to hear him mocked. (I say that jokingly. But the price tag would almost be worth it.)

It’s worth remembering that the last time Trump was in Madison Square Garden was for a 2024 rally just days before his election victory. He hasn’t learned a thing since. He’s apparently convinced himself that he’ll emerge from his economy-wrecking, Constitution-torching second term unscathed or, more fantastically, beloved. But there will be consequences for his corruption. Small ones for now, like an arena filled with boos. And much, much bigger ones to come.

Tonight, deep-blue New York gets to remind him.

Go Knicks.

Your friend, in defiance,

Miles Taylor
P.S. Help spread the defiance by sharing this post.

THE DEFIANCE WATCHLIST

We are tracking these stories today.

1. ICE WILL NO LONGER REPORT SOME DETAINEE DEATHS. ICE has ended an agency policy that required officials to report deaths that happened within 30 days of a detainee’s release. The rule was put in place to ensure ICE could not avoid accountability by releasing seriously ill detainees before they died. Under the new policy, deaths that occur after a person is released from ICE custody, including those who die shortly after being taken to a hospital, will no longer be included in ICE’s official death reports. As sick as this is, it won’t keep ICE from being held accountable. If anything, the decision puts a glaring spotlight on detainee health… and we can assure you that local prosecutors are watching.

2. TRUMP MELTS DOWN IN NBC INTERVIEW. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump denied ever promising to keep the United States out of new wars, despite repeatedly making that pledge during his 2024 campaign. He also defended the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, saying it is not an “endless war” and insisting that gas prices will fall once the conflict ends, assurances which likely convinced not a single viewer watching. Trump also voiced support for the anti-weaponization “slush fund” for January 6 insurrectionists, even as his administration has said the plan is no longer moving forward. The interview was bad enough… and then…

3. TRUMP ENDS INTERVIEW AFTER QUESTIONS ON ELECTION FRAUD CLAIMS. The president stormed out of the conversation with NBC’s Kristen Welker after being repeatedly pressed for evidence supporting his claims of election fraud in California. As Welker pressed him more broadly, including for evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, Trump descended into a stream-of-consciousness series of accusations about how the press was crooked, James Comey was a crooked cop, and that the interviewer herself, NBC’s Kristen Welker, was crooked. “I’ve had enough,” he said. And then he took his ball and went home.

4. BONUS — ACT OF DEFIANCE — LAWSUIT SEEKS TO BLOCK UFC EVENT AT THE WHITE HOUSE. A federal lawsuit filed Saturday is attempting to stop the UFC fight event scheduled for June 14 on the White House South Lawn, set to celebrate Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The lawsuit argues that the event would improperly benefit President Trump, UFC executives, and other private companies, while also claiming the administration failed to obtain proper authorization and environmental review for the event. The Trump administration has called it a baseless attempt to block a major event. We call it defiance.

WHAT’S COMING UP

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ONE MORE THING

Forward this email to someone who should join the defiance. We are growing the club. I won’t let a wannabe dictator destroy the country I spent my career protecting. That’s why I launched DEFIANCE.org — a club for courageous Americans asking, “WHAT CAN I DO?” Each week, we defy Trump by taking real action to thwart his abuses of power. Become a Member today at DEFIANCE.org/join or here on Substack. 100% of proceeds go to the pro-democracy fight. Or sign up for occasional updates for free below. We publish breaking news and analysis at DEFIANCE.News.