President-elect Donald Trump huddled with allies and a Republican trigger célèbre at Saturday’s Army-Navy soccer recreation at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, an opportunity to soak up one in all most tales rivalries in faculty sports activities whereas spotlighting his rising national security team.
Trump sat within the field of Sen.-elect Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and former deputy nationwide safety adviser Dina Powell McCormick. He was joined by Vice President-elect JD Vance, embattled Pentagon decide Pete Hegseth and others for the a hundred and twenty fifth matchup between service academies. Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump picked to be his director of nationwide intelligence, was noticed within the field.
Elon Musk, the billionaire tapped to co-head the newly coined Department of Government Efficiency, was additionally seen with Trump.
Also in attendance was Daniel Penny, a navy veteran who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide this week within the chokehold loss of life of an agitated subway rider in New York. Penny was invited by Vance, who accused prosecutors of making an attempt to “wreck” Penny’s life by charging the Marine veteran within the death of Jordan Neely in 2023.
Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was additionally proven sitting with Trump. The Joint Chiefs chairman is the nation’s highest-ranking navy officer, and serves as the first navy adviser to the president, protection secretary and National Security Council.
Brown was nominated to the publish by President Biden in May 2023.
Trump, who attended Army-Navy video games as president-elect in 2016 and through his first phrases, has been making an growing variety of public appearances before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. He was accompanied by his household and Vance on Thursday as he rang the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange after being acknowledged 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 group to assist lead his subsequent administration. He and his aides have turn out to be bullish about Hegseth’s possibilities of successful Senate affirmation. The Army fight veteran and former Fox News host’s possibilities of turning into protection secretary had appeared in peril amid allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat.
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Trump senior adviser Jason Miller mentioned Friday in a Newsmax interview that Hegseth has “made it via the gauntlet.” Miller predicted Hegseth will likely be confirmed.
“This is somebody who’s actually been shot at on the battlefield,” Miller added. “That’s the kind of one who I would like main the (Department of Defense) as a result of as we make these selections about whether or not or to not put American troops into hurt’s manner, I would like somebody who is aware of at a private stage what that is like earlier than you go and ship some younger man or younger girl into battle.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., attended the sport and introduced with him a contingent of different GOP lawmakers vying for face time with the incoming president weeks earlier than Republicans take management of the three branches of the federal authorities.
Johnson mentioned he intends to debate with Trump plans for a legislative bundle that might transfer via Congress subsequent yr with a easy majority within the face of anticipated Democratic opposition.
Vance mentioned Friday that Penny, a fellow Marine veteran, had accepted his invitation to be in Trump’s suite on the Army aspect. Penny was cleared of criminally negligent murder in Neely’s loss of life after a choose had dismissed a more serious manslaughter charge final week as a result of the jury deadlocked on that rely.
The case was a flashpoint within the long-standing debates over racial justice and in addition to failures by New York City to handle homelessness and psychological sickness, each of which Neely had struggled with.
“Daniel’s man, and New York’s mob district legal professional tried to wreck his life for having a spine,” Vance said in a post on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he is in a position to have enjoyable and recognize how a lot his fellow residents admire his braveness.”
Governor Wes Moore proclaimed Dec. 14, 2024, as Army vs. Navy Game Day in Maryland.
“Today is not only about one of many best rivalries in faculty sports activities – It’s about what brings us collectively. I’m proud to be a part of the lengthy custom of service that defines our state and our nation; one which transcends background, ideology, race, and household historical past,” mentioned Moore.
Army (11-1) is ranked nineteenth in The Associated Press Top 25 after beating Tulane on Dec. 6 to win the American Athletic Conference — the primary league title of any sort within the group’s 134-year historical past. Navy (8-3) was ranked earlier this season after beginning with six straight victories.
The Navy Midshipmen and the Army Black Knights have confronted one another on the soccer discipline yearly since 1930, together with when the United States was combating in World War II.
Winslow Townson / AP
Army pays tributes to troopers who fought in a pivotal battle 80 years in the past that occurred as Adolf Hitler launched a last-ditch effort to push again American and Allied forces in Europe. The Army’s a hundred and first Airborne was among the many items that fought Axis troops amid freezing climate.
Now, Army’s Black Knights are hoping to honor that dogged willpower on the sphere in the present day. Their uniforms on the sphere are impressed by the snow and bushes the troopers have been surrounded by, and mirror the tenacity of the troopers, who refused to give up and have been in a position to battle off the enemy.
