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US Open asks broadcasters to avoid crowd reactions to Trump during men’s finals match

Screenshot 2025 09 07 at 9 26 53 AM

Screenshot 2025 09 07 at 9 26 53 AM

The last time President Trump attended a US Open match, as a presidential candidate in 2015, the booing was so loud that multiple news outlets wrote stories about the critical crowd reaction. ESPN’s live broadcast lingered on shots of Trump during a quarterfinal match.

Trump will be back on Sunday afternoon, attending the men’s final, prompting a question: What will ABC show and how?

The tennis championship, a beloved event in Trump’s hometown borough of Queens in deep-blue New York City, attracts a different crowd than, say, the UFC fighting matches that Trump has attended in recent months.

Whether Trump is met by jeers or cheers at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday, the US Tennis Association says it wants the focus to be on the court.

Disney’s ESPN is the US rights-holder for the tennis tournament, and Disney’s ABC is airing the men’s final on Sunday. The ESPN production plans to show Trump and note that he is in attendance, much the same way Fox showed Trump at the Super Bowl earlier this year.

Curiosity about the network’s coverage plan was piqued on Saturday after a prominent tennis writer, Ben Rothenberg, published a story titled, “U.S. Open Orders Broadcasters to Censor Reactions to Trump.”

He cited a tennis association memo to broadcasters, including ESPN, that asked them to “refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the president’s attendance.”

The memo seemed like a request rather than an order. In a statement to CNN, the association said, “We regularly ask our broadcasters to refrain from showcasing off-court disruptions.”

Broadcasters tend to have the same instincts. Sports networks avoid showing streakers and other attention-seeking, game-interrupting stunts.

Political protests are inherently more newsworthy, however. When environmental activists disrupted a US Open semifinal match in 2023, forcing a long delay in play, ESPN did show some live pictures of the protesters. The live coverage, however, mostly emphasized the impact on the players, in keeping with the network’s focus on sports.

Some Trump antagonists have been publicly hoping for a political protest at the Open final. With tongue firmly in cheek, conservative lawyer George Conway wrote on X, “It would be terrible if he became upset over some chant like ‘WE. WANT. THE EPSTEIN. FILES.’ I earnestly hope and pray this does not happen.”

Trump will arrive in New York in time for the match’s expected start at 2 p.m. ET, according to a White House schedule.

Trump has attended half a dozen major sporting events since the start of his second term in January. He attended the first half of the Super Bowl in February, though he was only seen on camera briefly. Inside the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, there were more cheers than boos when he was shown on the stadium’s video screens.

More recently, when Trump was at the FIFA Club World Cup final in July, he was cheered upon arrival at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, but received some boos when shown on the video screens during the national anthem. There were boos again later when Trump helped carry the competition trophy to the stage, prompting some viral videos of the hostile reception.

Author: Brian Stelter

Source: CNN:::

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