Trump Attends Army/Navy Game; Switches Sides at Halftime

Nine different presidents have attended the game, switching sides at halftime to show neutrality toward the two branches of the armed forces

President-elect Donald Trump partook in one of the nation's most storied football rivalries, saluting U.S. troops at the annual Army-Navy game on Saturday.

The future commander-in-chief was greeted with cheers and waved to the crowd from outside a private box as he arrived at the stadium during the game's first quarter.

Trump was inside the box of a West Point graduate and spent the second half in the box of retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North.

“In keeping with a time-honored tradition, he will spend half of the game on the Army side and then half on the Navy side, who will win their 15th straight game, I’m sure,” Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee and a member of the Navy Reserves since 1999, said before the game.

Army ended the 14-year run of losses against Navy, winning 21-17.

Trump was joined by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and top adviser Steve Bannon.

The 117th game between the military academies at West Point and Annapolis, was held on relatively neutral ground, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.

Nine different presidents have attended the game, switching sides at halftime to show neutrality toward the two branches of the armed forces. Trump was the first president-elect to attend the game.

The appearance caps a week of rolling out Cabinet picks, holding "thank you" rallies in North Carolina, Iowa and Michigan, and trying to cement his incoming Senate majority with Saturday's runoff election in Louisiana.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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