WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will attend Sunday’s men’s final of the U.S. Open, returning to a tournament he once frequently attended for the first time in a decade.
The White House confirmed the visit Thursday night. Trump is expected to make a daytrip to New York and return to Washington after the match, which begins at 2 p.m. No. 1 seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner is playing Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday. The other semifinal match features Novak Djokovic against Carlos Alcaraz.
For decades as a New York-area real estate mogul and, later, reality TV star, Trump was a fixture at the Grand Slam tournament, often sitting in the suite’s balcony during night-session matches. He frequently would be shown on arena’s video screens.
But Trump hasn’t attended since he was booed at a quarterfinals match in September 2015, months after launching his 2016 presidential campaign. In recent years, including between his terms as president, Trump primarily lives not in New York but at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
The Trump Organization once controlled a suite at the U.S. Open which was adjacent to the television broadcasting booth in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but suspended it in 2017, during the first year of Trump’s first term.
This weekend’s trip is yet another example of Trump building the bulk of his domestic presidential travel not around policy announcements or campaign-style rallies, but playing weekend golf at courses he owns and attending major sporting events. There, the roar of the crowd sometimes features as many people booing at the president as cheering him.
Trump has previously been to the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500 in Florida, as well as UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia and the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Despite Trump’s past association with the tournament, having a sitting president attend is unusual. It hasn’t happened since Bill Clinton went to the 2000 tournament, though former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended the event’s opening night in 2023.
