The District of Columbia gave Donald Trump just 12,723 votes (4.1 percent) in the 2016 presidential election and an arctic cold reception Sunday night at the World Series. The media echo chamber reported he was booed and treated to a "lock him up" chant at Game 5 in Nationals Park.
The theme of "lock him up" appears in headlines by CNN.com, CBS News, USA Today, Yahoo Sports and more. The Atlantic magazine reports that Trump committed the biggest error of the World Series by making a rare public appearance before a crowd "he hadn’t screened—and was loudly booed."
"If President Donald Trump is impeached, convicted, and removed from office, or defeated in next year’s election, the political backdrop of his downfall is unlikely to be better dramatized than it was last night during Game 5 of the World Series," writes The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf.
"The crowd booed," Friedersdorf contined. "Loudly. Then fans in some sections of the stadium began to chant 'Lock him up,' repurposing the rallying cry that Trump supporters have directed at Hillary Clinton since the 2016 presidential campaign. ... At some point, an impeach trump banner was hung from an upper deck."
Here's Bobby Allyn's take on NPR.org: "Fresh off announcing the death of one of the world's most wanted terrorists, President Trump appeared at Game 5 of the World Series to find a crowd not eager to praise his achievement." He was referring to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a U.S. special operations raid in Syria.
CBS reported: "Mr. Trump's staff has long tried to shield him from events where he might be loudly booed or heckled, and he has rarely ventured into the neighborhoods of the heavily Democratic city. He won just over 4% of the vote in the District of Columbia in 2016. ... Washington Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner told the Washington Post that Mr. Trump should be at the game, but he made clear that he did not invite the president to throw out the first pitch, saying there were many other candidates who should be considered before Mr. Trump."
USA Today's Erin Jensen reports that frequent Trump critic Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe program, said the "lock him up" chants are un-American, but Trump's supporters started that.
Jensen writes that in addressing the chants Monday, Scarborough called the behavior "just un-American. It started with Donald Trump. In fact he's made it a centerpiece of his campaign rallies." Co-host Mika Brzezinski added, "We find it sickening when it happens at his rallies." More from Morning Joe:
"Of course it's sickening," Scarborough concurred. "We are Americans, and we do not do that. We do not want the world hearing us chant, 'Lock him up,' to this president or to any president."
"Let's hope, as we move forward, maybe this is one less fascist tactic he and his supporters use during chants – that you are going to actually imprison your political opponent," he added. "So, let's leave that behind."
"Let's hope he gets it," Brzezinski said.
In The Washington Post, Maura Judkis and Josh Dawsey wrote, "The Nationals had sought to keep politics out of their first trip to the World Series and did not invite Trump, who decided to come and then arranged the logistics with Major League Baseball, officials said. After his brief introduction, Trump was largely a non-presence in the ballpark."
CNN Politics' story bordered on pettiness: "Trump also did not participate in the crowd's 'Baby Shark' cheer ― in which fans make a chomping motion with their arms in time to the viral children's song ― during Nationals outfielder's Gerardo Parra's at-bat," writes Noah Gray.
"For once, Donald Trump got booed by a bunch of people in red hats," Deadspin's Dan McQuade wrote in a story appearing below a photo of President Trump frowning.
The president did know he was in enemy territory, though, and had joked that he’d need to wear body armor on to the field if he threw out the first pitch.
