By NOAH TRISTER, TARA COPP and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press
LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump huddled with allies and a Republican cause célèbre at Saturday’s Army-Navy football game, taking in one of the most storied rivalries in college sports while spotlighting his emerging national security team.
Trump was joined by Vice President-elect JD Vance, embattled Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, potential backup defense secretary option Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and others to watch 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.
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.
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 Gen. 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.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., 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.”
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Madhani reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.