NEW YORK – On Sunday, President Donald Trump is attending the U.S. Open as an invitee of Rolex, even though he has implemented significant tariffs on the country where the Swiss watchmaker is based. Event organizers aim to prevent off-court distractions, such as audience members booing him, from appearing on the TV broadcast.
Trump’s domestic travel during his second term has largely revolved around attending major sports events, as opposed to traveling to deliver policy announcements or hosting the large rallies he enjoyed during his campaign.
He will view the men’s final between second-seed Carlos Alcaraz, a 22-year-old Spaniard, and top-seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner, 24, from Italy, in Rolex’s suite.
The president’s acceptance of Rolex’s invitation comes mere weeks after the Trump administration imposed a whopping 39% tariff on Swiss products.
The tariff is over 2 1/2 times higher than the one agreed upon by the Trump administration for European Union goods imported to the U.S. and nearly four times higher than on imports from the UK. This has sparked concerns about Switzerland’s competitive edge against the 27-member block it borders.
The White House has not commented on Trump’s decision to accept an invitation from a corporate client to attend the tournament, though the president has been known to frequently intertwine political decisions with actions that could benefit his family business.
This includes actively promoting cryptocurrency and luxury golf properties worldwide that carry his name. He announced on Friday that when the U.S. hosts the Group of 20 summit in December 2026, it will be held at Trump National Doral in South Florida.
Any negative reaction to Trump’s presence won’t be shown on ABC’s national telecast, per standard policy, the U.S. Tennis Association says.
“We regularly ask our broadcasters to refrain from showcasing off-court disruptions,” the organization said in a statement.
Trump was once a U.S. Open mainstay, but hasn’t attended since he was loudly booed at a quarterfinals match in September 2015, months after launching his first presidential campaign.
The Trump Organization once controlled its own U.S. Open suite, which was adjacent to the television broadcasting booth in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but suspended it in 2017, during the first year of Trump’s first term. The family business is now being run by Trump’s sons with their father back in the White House.
Trump was born in Queens, home of the U.S. Open, and for decades was a New York-area real estate mogul and, later, a reality TV star. Attending the tournament before he was a politician, he usually sat in the suite’s balcony during night matches and was frequently shown on the arena’s video screens.
In recent years, however, including between his presidential terms, Trump primarily lived at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
Alcaraz said before the final that having Trump on-hand would be a privilege and “great for tennis,” but also suggested that such sentiment went for any president watching from the stands.
“I will try not to be focused, and I will try not to think about it,” Alcaraz said of Trump’s attendance. “I don’t want myself to be nervous because of it.”
Trump golfed at the Virginia club outside Washington on Saturday, as he has many recent weekends once the summer weather turned too hot for playing near Mar-a-Lago. But the president has also frequently attended sporting events — where the roar of the crowd sometimes features people booing the president while others cheer him.
Since returning to the White House in January and prior to Sunday’s U.S Open swing, Trump went to the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500, as well as UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia and the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Having a sitting president attend is unusual and, before Trump, hadn’t happened since Clinton went to the 2000 tournament. Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended the event’s opening night in 2023.
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Associated Press writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.
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