The president visited Josh Harris’s owner’s suite Sunday, and Harris’s customers responded.
Those who paid good money and braved the conditions — the faint rain, yes, but more so the current state of Washington Commanders football — let Harris know how they felt about President Donald Trump. They booed and double-saluted with their middle fingers, and their rage didn’t relent even as Trump swore in military recruits. The photos capturing the rubberneckers directly beneath the owner’s suite, waving their hands toward Trump, clashed with the unmistakable sounds of protest that filled the outdated structure known as Northwest Stadium.
The president visited Josh Harris’s owner’s suite Sunday, and Harris’s customers responded.
Those who paid good money and braved the conditions — the faint rain, yes, but more so the current state of Washington Commanders football — let Harris know how they felt about President Donald Trump. They booed and double-saluted with their middle fingers, and their rage didn’t relent even as Trump swore in military recruits. The photos capturing the rubberneckers directly beneath the owner’s suite, waving their hands toward Trump, clashed with the unmistakable sounds of protest that filled the outdated structure known as Northwest Stadium.
Harris had to have heard it: the scorn, the resentment, and the anger. (How could he not?) And so in those moments, very loudly and clearly, Harris must have been reminded of his dilemma.
He wants a new stadium. But his suite buddy, whose approval ratings have tanked to the lowest point of his second term, wants all the credit. And in this town, in this particular NFL market, there are complications to cozying up with this president.
Pity the poor billionaire who just wants to make D.C. stadiums nice again.
No one inside Northwest Stadium had a worse day than Harris. Not even the Commanders, who lost their fifth straight game. Nor Fox’s broadcast team of Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma, forced to pitch softballs and nod like puppets as Trump visited their booth during the broadcast. (Vilma even attempted a “6-7” joke. The ancestors are sighing.) And not even that instigator for the Detroit Lions, Amon-Ra St. Brown, who dedicated his touchdown to Trump. (Remember when NFL players stood up to this president? Now, apparently, they dance for him.)
Harris found himself squished between two factions. If it’s true that Trump really wants the yet-to-be-constructed $3.7 billion stadium in Kingman Park to be named after him, then Harris will have a problem with many, if not most, of his own constituents.
In the majority of NFL cities, Sunday’s scene at Northwest Stadium likely would have played out differently. Judging by the crowd that packed State Farm Stadium in September for conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, fans might have roared when Trump appeared on the mega screen. And at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, the game probably would have just been the warmup act for a Trump rally — because Florida is … Florida.
Harris, however, owns a team that currently plays its games in Landover, Maryland, just four miles from the border of the District of Columbia. And the Commanders fans who hail from the District and attended Sunday’s game might have witnessed the occupation of their streets by the National Guard. They might have gathered in protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. They might even have been part of the 93.4 percent who voted against Trump’s second term in office.
Then, there are the fans who live near Prince George’s County and farther down I-495, the ones who make up the residents of the DMV. They are working people, and many of them surely work for the federal government. (The District, Maryland and Virginia combined have a higher percentage of federal employees than all other states.) They were the community impacted by DOGE layoffs earlier in the year. And now they — their loved ones, their neighbors, their friends — are the very people still waiting for the government to reopen so they can get paid.
Though the longest government shutdown in U.S. history appears to be nearing an end, recent polls have pinned the blame on Republicans. And Sunday in Landover, the people jeered the leader of that party.
This isn’t Glendale, nor Tampa. This isn’t the typical red base for an NFL franchise. To put it succinctly, this isn’t Trump Country. The Commanders’ new stadium will be built in a community that roundly has rejected this president, and it will be filled by fans who remember what it was like to spend those 40-plus days without a paycheck.
Harris had to have known that: the opposition, the disgust, the landslide rebuke. (Seriously, how could he not?) And yet, he might not have had any other choice than to open the doors of his suite to Trump — and allow the president to interject himself into his franchise.
The president of this nation rules by social media posts that threaten to stop the construction of a stadium if the team doesn’t return to its former racist name. Where he played no previous role, he seizes the spotlight away from the D.C. mayor, and even the NFL commissioner when it’s time to take the victory lap. This is who Harris must placate for the next three years. Harris had better learn St. Brown’s moves, because he’ll be doing the delicate dance between trying to earn the approval of this president while still winning the hearts of his fan base.
The sounds from Sunday made it clear just how complicated this will be. Because while some applauded, many others booed, and booed, and made their displeasure known. It wasn’t just those clad in Commanders gear but also the interlopers donning the blue and silver of the Lions. They were deafening in their disrespect. And if Josh Harris was listening, then he will understand what might happen the next time this guest comes knocking at his door.
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