Jon Stewart said the “so shocking” moment at Madison Square Garden wasn’t just that President Donald Trump was booed during the national anthem at Game 3 of the NBA Finals—it was the contrast between a patriotic scene and the crowd’s reaction, and what Stewart
Jon Stewart didn’t sound amused when he recalled what he saw inside Madison Square Garden earlier this week—President Donald Donald Trump standing in the middle of the national anthem while fans responded with boos.
On the latest episode of his “Weekly Show” podcast. Stewart. a die-hard Knicks fan. described the moment as “crazy. ” pointing to the sheer timing of it. He said the anthem started with the familiar lyrics—“It was in the middle of a guy with a beautiful voice singing the national anthem”—and then. as the crowd heard the cue. the response turned.
“‘This was, ‘And the land of the —,’ and then it cuts away, and everybody’s like ‘Boo.’ … It was more, I think — the juxtaposition of it made it so much more shocking and clear.”
Stewart said boos at games are often aimed at opposing players when they enter the arena. What made this different, in his telling, was that it landed during a performance meant to unify. The crowd noise became, for Stewart, a pointed rebuke aimed directly at Trump.
He then pivoted to Trump’s postgame claim that he heard “mostly cheers” from a “very enthusiastic” crowd—one of several right-wing spins that followed the booing. Stewart said the remark read like evidence of how Trump filters what he experiences.
“It’s also an insight into the window of his power of reality distortion,” Stewart said.
“I don’t know what he filters through whatever earholes he’s filtering through. But I do think he genuinely heard that as cheers.”
Stewart also addressed the idea that the reaction was “mixed. ” a framing that had shown up in right-wing coverage and White House messaging. including the White House sharing a picture of Trump’s mid-anthem salute with the caption “King of New York. ” and Fox News’ Jesse Watters claiming the crowd’s reaction was “mixed.”.
Stewart dismissed that characterization quickly.
“I mean, mixed in the sense that it was 90% booing and 10% confusion,” he teased.
He said he’s been at Madison Square Garden before and described the reaction he witnessed as overwhelming. “I’ve been in Madison Square Garden. It was no more mixed than what the [San Antonio] Spurs received. I’m sure there were like 15 people in Madison Square Garden who were like. ‘Wemby!’ But overwhelmingly people were like. ‘Fuck them!’”.
For Stewart, the politics didn’t end with the noise. He said he doesn’t want Trump near another NBA Finals game.
“We were on the craziest, high-vibed — we were on a run like no basketball team has ever been on. We hadn’t lost in over a month, and he shows up. … He put the maloik on us. That’s the hex,” Stewart said.
He returned to the atmosphere, describing what the president’s presence felt like to him—less like a ceremonial appearance and more like bad luck hanging over the arena.
“You know what it felt like with him in the building? Like in ‘Ghostbusters’ when the city opens up and the ghouls are coming out of the thing. We needed Bill Murray to come in and him and Dan Aykroyd to zap whatever cytoplasm was getting on the court.”
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