President Trump was visibly bored and impatient during the performance of the national anthem at the Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl party he hosted on Sunday. The Miami Herald has obtained a video of Trump fidgeting, pointing to get the attention of people, and even pretending to conduct the music during the song — while his family and other guests stand stoically with their hands over their hearts. Trump, of course, has repeatedly insisted that others should “stand proudly” for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” particularly during his attacks on athletes who have knelt in protest during the song. But when standing for the anthem in the privacy of his for-profit club, President Trump looked as though he were waiting for people to finish singing him “Happy Birthday.”
According to the Herald, “the video was included in an Instagram story by a real estate agent for a Russian-American firm who frequents Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties and events.”
At the very end of the video, it even appears as though Trump is pulling out his chair to sit down, mid-song, but it’s not clear whether he did or not.
Here’s the video:
Before the big game, HuffPost reported that Trump’s weekend trip to Mar-a-Lago cost U.S. taxpayers $3.4 million:
The president’s official schedule shows him spending two and a half hours Sunday evening at a “Super Bowl LIV watch party” at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Tickets sold for $75 each, but were only available to members of the club — the initiation fee for which reportedly runs about $450,000, with annual dues costing several thousands of dollars more.
Trump has also previously indicated that he may not even know the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” (or “God Bless America”).
And later on Sunday night, Trump demonstrated less grasp of U.S. geography than a fifth-grader when he mistakenly congratulated the State of Kansas after Missouri’s Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
