A brief history of presidents at sports events

👥 Prepping: for our next Zoom town hall!

🏛️ Studying: the Reflecting Pool discourse

🛩️ Choosing: my airline

⚽️ Anticipating: the World Cup in KC

🏀 Watching: the Knicks (and Spurs, I guess)

It’s been another action-packed week. As we mentioned in Friday’s newsletter, and on a YouTube community post, we won big at the WAN-IFRA awards in Marseille. We took home the trophy for Best in Audience Engagement. It was very cool to win this on a global stage, and it made my trip through six airports in roughly 60 hours worth it (more on that in a bit).

Summer is officially upon us, so let’s all agree to go outside, touch grass and stare at the sun (with sunglasses on). But first, let’s dive into what’s coming up in LNI Land.

Our next Zoom town hall is coming up Wednesday, June 17th at 8 p.m. ET. This will be our fourth town hall since LNI started. It’s a members-only event, so consider becoming a member then signing up for an opportunity to ask me a direct question, four times a year. In every town hall so far, we’ve answered everything and everyone. So, don’t be shy: Sign up!

I think I’ve been triggered, in the most classic, title-of-Donald-Trump-Jr.’s-book sense. Conservatives, or more specifically MAGA Trump supporters, have reacted to the Reflecting Pool being “finished” with dozens of snarky comments in our weeks-old TikTok video.

I’ve spent a lot of time (maybe too much time) trying to look inward and figure out why this is bothering me so much. I think I’ve managed to come to a logical, unemotional Spock-like conclusion. So much of what the right might consider being “triggered” is really just an annoyance at the lack of facts in MAGA’s response to this situation.

I would love if the president, or any president fixed long-term issues with the Reflecting Pool. The reason I have so many photos of the Pool from the Lincoln Memorial (featured in Friday’s video) is because, when I lived in D.C., I ran to the top of the Memorial Rocky Balboa-style, several times a week, for years. Like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, I marveled at the monument and surrounding area like I was seeing it for the first time, every time. And this is exactly why I know the Reflecting Pool wasn’t fixed. For 80% of the year, it looks absolutely beautiful. Even in the winter, when it freezes over, it’s magnificent. Infamously, the local news once caught me illegally walking on it while filming a video for The Washington Post.

And for the other 20%, during the summer, algae accumulates slowly. This is what Trump saw that made him want to fix the Reflecting Pool - and I agree with him there. It looks bad when the algae is at full Super Mario Bros. (1993) movie fungus levels. But, as we explained in both videos, the fixes Trump made these last two months were temporary. It’s the pipes pumping the water from the Tidal Basin to the Pool that are leaking millions of gallons each year. And it’s that same water, basically normal lake water, that makes the pool reflect. It’s just opaque enough that the dark blue paint applied to the bottom has had zero effect on the look of the Pool.

And so all of these posts from people who have either never seen the Reflecting Pool, or are pretending for bonus social media points within the MAGA-sphere that it was fixed, really irked me. As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I’m not really bothered by many of Trump’s projects. The Oval Office that looks like it was decorated by Goldmember from Austin Powers? That’s temporary. The UFC fight on the White House lawn? Also temporary, and paid for by advertisers and UFC itself, not taxpayers. Sure, these things are tacky, but they’re relatively straightforward and honest in their existence.

However, the Reflecting Pool, the ballroom, the Arch, the Kennedy Center and more are not transparent in their approach. They’re getting offered, without a bidding process, to contractors close to Trump. The administration is completely evading Congressional approval and/or using a panel entirely appointed by Trump to push them through. In typical Trump construction fashion, he’s bulldozing before he has permission, forcing the hand of many involved to meekly agree to his projects.

This is what “triggers” me most. Everyone is getting scammed. Including the people in the comment sections, mocking a factual video. As a journalist for the last ten years, it only gets more frustrating trying to present facts to a group of people who are just as negatively affected by a news story as anyone else.

This still cuts both ways, by the way. There’s plenty of Democrats, liberals and non-conservatives scamming people. As NPR reported (and I’ve seen with my own eyes), left-wing conspiracy thinking is only becoming more prominent. So, we’ll keep reporting on all misinformation at Local News International. I’ll also probably take a break from reading the comments for a bit.

I used to be a big Southwest Airlines guy. The flight attendants? The best. The service? Top-notch. Even when I was a victim of that computer malfunction three years ago over the holidays, they fully took care of us. We got tickets refunded and additional vouchers for new tickets and they covered the cost of our rental car and hotel we needed to get from Kansas City to DC. When I would board the plane, flight attendants often made sure I got a seat in the exit row, with its extra leg room for long-legged folks such as myself.

But that last perk no longer exists. The open seating that allowed for such accommodation is gone. The two free checked bags? DEAD. The major reasons I flew Southwest have disappeared.

Now I am a free agent. This may have been necessary anyway. Southwest doesn’t really do much international travel. With all the fun opportunities we’ve had lately with LNI, it’s been clear that my shift to a different set of wings will need to coincide with a more worldly airline.

For a minute, I thought that might be American Airlines. My wife and I often fly American, and its partner airline Avianca, to see her family in Colombia. But lately, Avianca has been removing some of those direct flights to her hometown. United Airlines has temporarily taken its place. And so, I flew United, and its partner airlines, to Marseille. It was a bit of a mess. Not terrible, but not great either. Then again, United is cheaper than Delta…

Anyway, as LNI co-founder and Delta fanboy Micah Gelman said to me last week during my 30-hour stint in Marseille, “you need to pick an airline and stick with it.” So, I’m looking for your unbiased and biased opinions, folks. Which airline is best? Which one makes you feel the most cared for? What airline doesn’t force you to talk to an AI agent that accidentally deletes your entire itinerary, almost leaving you stranded in the Denver airport? Let me know at [email protected].

As is the case every month in Kansas City, we enjoyed another “First Fridays” weekend, walking around downtown from booth to booth, marveling at the many local artists and their creations. There’s a little extra energy in the air with the World Cup just days away.

I am convinced this city will surpass expectations as a host city for the World Cup. The traffic here is basically nonexistent, given the amount of highways. There’s construction, sure. But people here have never experienced the hour-long commute into DC from Northern Virginia. The food is good. The local celebrities, like Heidi Gardner, are doing all they can to promote the city. And most importantly, as we experienced walking around this last weekend, the people are just very very nice. I’m not talking about “Minnesota Nice,” which can sometimes (though not always!) have an artificial quality just below the surface. People here are just genuinely happy and excited to be a part of something bigger. It’s why, initially at least, we so endeared ourselves to the world as Super Bowl champions. Even now, burdened by our own football success and perhaps more divisive as a result, visiting NFL fans cannot deny the hospitality and complete lack of hostility to out-of-towners.

It’s going to be an exciting summer. Heck, I may even make a short sports video for once (which always fails miserably on every platform but maybe the 30th time is the charm?)!

Speaking of sports! The Knicks are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals, heading into Game 3 on Monday night. If you don’t care about sports, don’t worry. This section is really about politics. President Trump is attending the game Monday night. With that comes added security and some general anxiety and online outrage from non-Trump fans.

Mayor Mamdani has been enjoying the games too. He even “repealed bedtime” for New York City kids during the Finals. Also, he’s the mayor of New York City and a long-time Knicks fan. On the flip side, I am not sure the president is ready for the negative reaction he may receive in Madison Square Garden. The NBA is not necessarily a political hotbed, but it certainly has its share of outspoken players and teams.

Sports commentator and unserious White House contender Stephen A. Smith said “I don’t want him there.” He added that he wouldn’t want Obama there either, if he were the sitting president.

That led me to wonder, how often does a sitting president attend a sports event? Here’s a few!

There are many more for most of the presidents listed above. This really illustrates that it’s not that strange for Trump to attend a sporting event. However, given President Trump’s historically low polling numbers, and the location of the game, I am anticipating at least one extremely long paragraph on Truth Social after the game about the disrespect from Democrats in attendance.