Donald Trump left the Super Bowl before the fourth quarter on Sunday, leading some to speculate over the reason for his early departure.
Some thought the president left because the team he picked to win – the Kansas City Chiefs – were getting an absolute beatdown by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Others complained on social media that he wasted taxpayer dollars by only going to half the game.
However, it can be revealed that the president’s official White House schedule always had him departing around 8:05 p.m. Central Time.
He was on board Air Force One with over an hour of the game still to go.
Trump on Sunday became the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl.
It is believed some of his predecessors did not attend due to the security headache it could cause having such a highly protected individual go in and out of the stadium.
When a president attends public events, the grounds of said event become a lot more chaotic and require a ton more security from members of the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement partners.
For security and logistical purposes, it’s not unusual for presidents to depart crowded, public events before they end, or for the audience to be prevented from exiting or entering when the president is moving.
DailyMail.com’s Geoff Earle who was with the traveling presidential press pool in the Superdome Sunday said that Trump was always supposed to leave the game early.
It would be a ‘nightmare’ if he tried to leave at same time as nearly 80,000 people, he detailed.
The Trump media handlers ensured that the pool was in vans ready to leave the massive stadium well before the halftime performer Kendrick Lamar started his performance.
We were ‘ready to roll,’ he went on.
There are always additional security measures in place for large sporting events where lots of VIPs and political figures are expected to attend.
For example, then-First Lady Jill Biden attended the World Series in November 2022 to cheer for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Houston Astros. She also left the game early to get a head start on the crowd.
It’s likely security officials and law enforcement wanted to avoid wrestling with thousands of people anxious to exit the Caesars Superdome Stadium on Sunday at the conclusion of the NFL championship game.
Critics on social media were already in meltdown mode over Trump’s attendance at the Super Bowl, which some estimates claim cost the government up to $15-$20 million.
‘Taxpayers paid over $20 million for Felon Donald Trump to attend half the Super Bowl. He reportedly left before Halftime. Where is DOGE at?’ a liberal podcaster posted to X.
Republicans against Trump wrote: ‘Trump is the first president to attend a Super Bowl game, a trip that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars—some estimates suggest as much as $15 million. What happened to ‘government efficiency’?’
Trump arrived at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana around 4:30 p.m. Central Time on Sunday – an hour before kickoff.
And the president remained a few minutes ahead of his official schedule, with the motorcade departing the stadium at 7:55 p.m. Central Time.
The Super Bowl game and post-game celebrations lasted for at least another hour after Trump left the stadium.
He arrived back in Washington, D.C. at 11:51 p.m. Eastern Time.
Trump predicted that the Chiefs, who were lined-up for a three-peat but were absolutely crushed by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, would win.
He praised their quarterback Patrick Mahomes during an interview with Fox News Bret Baier where he claimed the QB’s wife Brittany Mahomes is a ‘mega-Trump fan.’
‘I hate to do it – I guess you have to say that when a quarterback wins as much as he’s won – I have to go with Kansas City,’ the president told Baier in clips played ahead of the big game on Sunday.
‘At the same time, Philadelphia is fantastic, it’s going to be just a great game,’ he added.
Trump went on to praise Mahomes and his wife, who are widely popular on social media and are rumored to be Trump supporters.
‘I’ve watched this great quarterback – who has, by the way, a phenomenal wife, okay, she’s a Trump fan,’ the president claimed. ‘She’s a mega-fan, so I happen to love her.’
‘She’s a great person,’ he said of Brittany Mahomes. ‘I watched her being interviewed, I said it’s pretty good, but she’s great and he’s great.’
Patrick Mahomes, when asked about Trump attending the game on Sunday, said: ‘It’s always cool to be able to play in front of a sitting president.’
Meanwhile, his wife received backlash in August after she liked an Instagram picture posted by Trump that included the GOP’s 2024 platform. Other reports noted that she liked a comment on one of her own posts that read ‘TRUMP-VANCE 2024.’
‘To be a hater as an adult, you have to have some deep rooted issues you refuse to heal from childhood,’ she wrote in a post responding to the backlash without directly addressing the claims of being a Trump supporter. ‘There’s no reason your brain is fully developed and you hate to see others doing well.’
The 29-year-old quarterback made it clear last year he was not endorsing anyone in the 2024 presidential election.