U.S. Sen. John Barrasso joined President Donald Trump at the Super Bowl yesterday in New Orleans — and the experience had little to do with football, according to the Wyoming Republican.
The second-ranking member of the Senate and Trump occupied a Caesars Superdome luxury suite with other lawmakers plus Cabinet officials, the president’s family members, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson and others for part of the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“If you plan to go to the Super Bowl with President Trump, I will tell you two things: One is, you’re going to have a great time, and number two is, you’re not going to see much of the game,” he told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview Monday. “There’s just so much activity and so many people around.”
Trump’s prediction of a Chiefs victory turned out to be wrong. Barrasso sidestepped questions about predictions of his own and whether he had a rooting interest.
Trump and the rest of the group left the game in the third quarter — but the senator said the departure at that time was pre-planned, having nothing to do with the lopsided contest that the Eagles led 24-0 at halftime.
Barrasso’s day included joining Trump and others for the flight on Air Force One from near Trump’s South Florida home to New Orleans.
“As we flew … you’ll notice that we flew over what used to be known as the Gulf of Mexico,” Barrasso said. “And as we were flying over that large body of water, [Trump] signed the presidential executive order changing the name to the Gulf of America.”
Swift Booed
Barrasso is a native of Reading, Pa. — about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Taylor Swift — who backed Kamala Harris in the presidential election and was on hand for yesterday’s game — is from Reading as well.
As the girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the pop music superstar was rooting for Kansas City as always.
“I was just thrilled to be there with President Trump,” Barrasso said when asked if he was pulling for either team or predicted the outcome. “One of the highlights was when they showed President Trump on the screen and people cheered, and then they showed Taylor Swift on the screen … and people booed.”
The president noticed that too and shared his thoughts on social media after the game.
“The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In the suite, the game took a back seat to public policy talks, according to Barrasso. He said there were discussions on moving forward with Trump’s agenda for energy, the border and funding the military.
“There was a lot of business going on … a lot of activity, lots of discussion, and the president was obviously intimately involved in all of it,” Barrasso said. “I was privileged as the whip of the majority party … to be part of every one of the discussions.”
Of course it wouldn't be a Super Bowl without food.
Trump is famously a fan of McDonald's, but that was not on the menu in the stadium suite yesterday, according to Barrasso's communications director, Laura Mengelkamp.
"No McDonald’s this time," she told Cowboy State Daily in an email. "They served everything from hot dogs to New Orleans style gumbo and popcorn for a snack."
Early Exit
When Trump and the group left the game in the third quarter, that was consistent with the schedule, Barrasso said.
He also said it was consistent with his experience attending regular-season NFL games with the president. If Trump was to leave at the end of a game, it would be disruptive to fans exiting at the same time, Barrasso said.
“The president doesn’t ever want to interrupt the public from getting home from a game,” Barrasso said. “And he routinely schedules the departure from the game long before it’s over.”
At the Super Bowl, “We knew what time we were leaving before we got there,” he added. “So it had absolutely nothing to do with the play, or the outcome.”
The group flew from New Orleans to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital, Barrasso said.
“The game itself is important,” Barrasso said. “But it’s more important to do the work of the people of Wyoming, to talk about Wyoming …
“I flew with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, we talked about key issues for Wyoming," he said. "Any time you get a chance to do that with the secretary of the Interior, and you’re the senator from Wyoming, you want to be there no matter what else is going on. … That to me is the bigger story than it was a football game.”
