Donald Trump to skip president’s traditional Super Bowl interview
By Joe Romano
Trump has declined a request for the annual presidential interview prior to the NFL’s Super Bowl LII this weekend.
In what has become a familiar dialogue between the White House and professional sports, President Donald Trump is making football political. This time by skipping the presidential interview prior to the NFL’s Super Bowl LII.
According to multiple sources, including NBC and CNN, the president has declined the invitation to be interviewed prior to the event. This has been almost a decade-long tradition for the acting president started by George W. Bush.
CNN reported the story and have been told that President Trump will not do the interview, according to a White House official who spoke to the news outlet on the condition of anonymity.
The news outlet reports that the network airing the game could be a reason why the interview request has been denied. NBC will be hosting the game, a network that Trump has been critical of during his presidency. Only a year ago, he sat down with FOX and Bill O’Reilly prior to the event.
The NFL’s biggest game is traditionally the highest rated program shown on television all year. Regardless of all those eyeballs, there are other reasons than the network Trump could be choosing to sit out the interview. CNN points to two critical points, the first being the ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign — any NBC interviewer “would likely question Trump about the ongoing Russia investigations.”
Another issue could be how critical Trump has been of the NFL and National Anthem protest this year:
"Trump’s feud with the NFL could have been a factor in the decision-making process. Trump repeatedly criticized the NFL as an organization and the specific players who kneeled during the national anthem."
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When the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles take the field in Minneapolis this Sunday, a lot of the world will be watching. Whoever wins will likely get a presidential invite to the White House to meet with President Trump, another annual sports tradition that has become increasingly political.