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Did CBS Sports pay proper homage to president-elect Donald Trump during Saturday’s Army-Navy game?
According to Outkick.com’s Clay Travis, Paramount’s flagship network fell short of his expectations.
‘I’m gonna take a shot at CBS Sports,’ the conservative sports podcaster and blogger told Fox News‘ Howard Kurtz. ‘You played the clip of them at Army-Navy.
‘Howard, do you know the percentage of the time they showed Donald Trump on the air during that game?’ Travis asked.
Before Kurtz could respond, Travis jumped in with an answer – albeit one that was not in the form of a percentage.
‘Four seconds,’ Travis said while holding up four fingers on his right hand. ‘They showed him on the air for four seconds. If he had been Taylor Swift, they would have had him for two minutes.’
Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance attend the 125th Army-Navy football game
Kurtz then added that MSNBC ‘played a lot’ of footage of Trump at the 125th Army-Navy game on Saturday in Landover, Maryland.
Travis steered the conversation back towards CBS on social media Tuesday morning.
‘CBS Sports only showed Donald Trump for four seconds at the Army-Navy game,’ Travis wrote on X. ‘Taylor Swift gets at least 10x this screen time every game.’
Swift, of course, became regular camera fodder during the 2023 season during the early stages of her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Swift has largely stayed away from Chiefs games this season, although that cold change with her tour over and Kansas City embarking on a playoff run.
Trump appeared on CBS saluting the crowd during the national anthem, but the bulk of his publicity from Saturday’s appearance played out on social media, where the president-elect was seen alongside running mate JD Vance, embattled Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, and potential backup defense secretary option Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Navy beat Army 31-13 in the 125th matchup between the service academies.
Daniel Penny, a military veteran who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide this past week in the chokehold death of an agitated subway rider in New York, also was a guest in the president’s suite. Penny was invited by Vance, who accused prosecutors of trying to ‘ruin’ Penny’s life by charging the Marine veteran in the death of Jordan Neely in 2023.
Navy defensive tackle Landon Robinson (96) celebrates with cornerback Phillip Hamilton (36)
Trump arrived at Northwest Stadium just before kickoff and was greeted warmly by the crowd, which erupted in cheers when the president-elect, Vance and Elon Musk, who Trump has appointed to help lead a proposed Department of Government Efficiency, appeared on the scoreboard video screen.
The president, who was seated with his entourage in a stadium suite, mouthed ‘thank you’ and the crowd erupted in a chant of ‘USA, USA!’
Trump, who attended Army-Navy games as president-elect in 2016 and during his first term, has been making an increasing number of public appearances before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. He was accompanied by his family and Vance on Thursday as he rang the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized as Time magazine’s person of the year.
Trump spent the weeks after the Nov. 5 election holed up at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida assembling a team to help lead his next administration.
He and his aides have become bullish about Hegseth’s chances of winning Senate confirmation. The Army combat veteran and former Fox News host’s chances of becoming defense secretary had appeared in peril amid allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat.
DeSantis, a former Navy lawyer who competed against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, is among the possible replacement candidates Trump has considered if Hegseth’s bid fizzles.
Swift was a regular at Chiefs games last season, but has had less to to watch NFL this year
But Saturday’s game offered Trump a chance to display his commitment to Hegseth’s nomination. The embattled nominee even stood with Trump and Vance for the playing of the national anthem.
The mood appeared celebratory for Trump and his team on Saturday.
Hegseth along with fellow Army veterans Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to serve as director of national intelligence, posted a short video on X shortly before the game to make their allegiances clear.
‘We love our Navy, except today’ said Waltz, a retired Army National Guard colonel who did multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.
‘Go Army!’ Gabbard added.
Trump also spent time during the game with Air Force General CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose future could be on shaky ground in the new Trump administration.
Biden last year tapped Brown for a four-year term as the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, but military leaders serve at the pleasure of the president.
Brown, a combat pilot and just the second Black officer to serve as chairman, spoke out after the police killing of George Floyd, a touchstone moment in the Black Lives Matter movement, about the bias he faced in his own life and career.
But Trump has expressed disdain for equity and diversity programs. And his defense secretary pick Hegseth has decried a ‘woke’ agenda that he argues is undermining U.S. military strength. Hegseth, days before he was announced as Trump’s Pentagon nominee, called for firing Brown and generals that have promoted diversity policies in a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL.
Trump also made time for Republican lawmakers that he’ll need to get his agenda through Congress.
Vice President-elect JD Vance brought Daniel Penny, a fellow Marine veteran, as his guest
House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican, Louisiana) was among the lawmakers that chatted up Trump at the game. He brought with him a contingent of other GOP lawmakers, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Pennsylvania Sen.-elect David McCormick, that vied for face time with the incoming president weeks before Republicans take control of the White House and both branches of Congress.
Johnson, who could be seen talking with the president-elect before kickoff, had said he would discuss with Trump plans for a legislative package that could move through Congress next year with a simple majority in the face of expected Democratic opposition.
Vance brought Penny, a fellow Marine veteran, as his guest. Penny was cleared of criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death after a judge had dismissed a more serious manslaughter charge last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.
The case was a flashpoint in the long-standing debates over racial justice and as well as failures by New York City to address homelessness and mental illness, both of which Neely had struggled with.
‘Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,’ Vance said in a post on X on Friday. ‘I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.’
