Commanders Fans Shamefully Boo During Military Enlistment Ceremony As Trump Swears In Troops
The Commanders should have known better before the ceremony ever started
During halftime of Sunday's Washington Commanders game against the Detroit Lions, recruits from all military branches streamed onto the field for a Veterans Day enlistment and, disgustingly, a majority of the Northwest Stadium crowd began to boo as the ceremony began.
People raise their hands as they take the oath during a reenlisting ceremony to the US army presided over by US President Donald Trump during the NFL game between the Washington Commanders and the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, on November 9, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Crowd Boos Trump Multiple Times
And, I get it, the people in the stands were almost certainly booing President Donald Trump. They were booing the fact he was there swearing in the new troops over a microphone from one of the luxury boxes at the former FedEx Field.
They were booing and cursing and jeering the guy who lives in the White House and is used to people making their Trump Derangement Syndrome known by way of riots, protests and, in this case, with full-throated displeasure.
But maybe the young Americans pledging to serve this country for the next coming years may not have known all of this.
Perhaps all they heard and saw was the reaction and not what caused it.
Crowd Boos During Enlistment Ceremony
And perhaps they took it as a sign of the crowd's disapproval for them.
Of them!
The mere possibility that would be the understanding of the message the crowd sent is repellent to any patriotic American. Because those kids are the best of the best.
They are the best of us.
They certainly are better than the unthinking fools booing during this ceremony.
And they deserve respect even if the crowd thought the Commander-in-Chief did not .
Not All Reaction Was Negative
And this is where I tell you not everyone booed.
There were cheers peppering the President. And the ceremony.
When Trump headed out, as the homestanding Commanders were getting stomped 44-22, plenty of fans lined up to wish him well.
That's the full story of Trump's visit to this game, which represented the first time a sitting president attended an NFL game since 1978.
The new enlistees, however, never saw that. The fact that those young men and women — about to risk their lives and honor for this country — heard even a single boo they might have mistaken as meant for them is shameful.
The Commanders, for their part, never asked the crowd to hold its reaction until after the ceremony. The fans had already reacted earlier, when Trump was shown on the big screens in the second quarter.
There were cheers and boos then — but mostly boos.
People react as unseen US President Donald Trump appears onscreen during the NFL game between the Washington Commanders and the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, on November 9, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Commanders Crowd Reacts To Trump
The team should have known better before the military ceremony ever started.
It’s their fans, after all. And they come mostly from Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia that are either hopelessly blue or trending that way.
So the Commanders — whose owner, Josh Harris, hosted Trump during his visit — probably should’ve seen this coming. They didn't.
It happened.
Years from now, when the men and women sworn in on Sunday look back on that moment, maybe they’ll laugh because they know better. Or maybe it’ll sting because they don’t.
The idiots whose team got clobbered by the Lions, who’d been pounding beers since Sunday morning and weren’t exactly thinking straight, booed them. Or so those recruits might think.
Terrible.