Donald Trump has spent years insisting people shouldn’t believe what they see with their own eyes. On Tuesday, he did it again.
After appearing at Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden and getting loudly booed by sections of the crowd, Trump claimed the reaction was actually positive.
Not just positive. “Amazing.”
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump was asked directly about the reception he received when cameras showed him on the arena’s giant screens.
“I thought it was great. I mean, I thought it was amazing, actually,” Trump said. “It was certainly amazing. It was, it was, I think, mostly cheers.”
Mostly cheers.
That’s quite a claim considering videos from inside the arena capture loud boos erupting throughout the crowd when Trump appeared on screen.
It also doesn’t match eyewitness reporting.
Washington Times pool reporter Jeff Mordock described Trump as being “thunderously booed” during the game.
The wild part is that Trump wasn’t exactly attending anonymously.
The sitting president arrived with an enormous security footprint that disrupted large parts of Midtown Manhattan. Streets were closed. Security restrictions tightened. Fans were told to arrive hours early. A planned watch party outside Madison Square Garden was canceled altogether.
New Yorkers were also seen directing middle fingers and profanities toward Trump’s motorcade before the game even started.
Yet somehow, according to Trump, this all translated into overwhelming enthusiasm.
At this point, the gap between reality and Trump’s version of reality has become a familiar feature of American politics.
If a crowd boos, he hears cheers.
If he loses an election, he claims victory.
If something embarrassing happens in public, it gets repackaged into a triumph.
The script rarely changes.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had warned before the game that Trump’s visit would create unnecessary chaos around the city.
“We’ve got avenues shut off, we’ve got streets shut off because the president is coming up,” Smith said on his radio show.
“What happened to Mar-a-Lago? What happened to the White House?”
Smith wasn’t questioning Trump’s right to attend.
He was questioning whether forcing an entire city to accommodate a presidential photo-op was worth the disruption.
Trump responded the way Trump usually responds to criticism: with insults.
Asked about Smith’s comments, Trump suggested the ESPN personality lacked the intelligence to run for president.
“You need a high IQ,” Trump said. “I’m not sure that Stephen has that.”
It’s a familiar pattern.
When confronted with criticism, attack the critic.
When confronted with reality, deny it.
When confronted with boos, claim they were cheers.
The bigger story here isn’t that a New York crowd booed Donald Trump. Madison Square Garden isn’t exactly known as friendly territory for him.
The bigger story is that even after years of public scrutiny, viral videos, and instant fact-checking, Trump still operates as though simply declaring something happened is enough to make it true.
The crowd heard boos. The cameras captured boos. Reporters documented boos.
And Trump walked away insisting it was all applause.
