U.S. Open officials kept President Donald Trump company at last year’s men’s final by swapping out the winner’s trophy — which sat on a table by him — with a replacement “shiny object” ahead of the trophy presentation, tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg reported in his Substack page, Bounces, over the weekend.
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Pictures from the 2025 final show the president, whose appearance drew boos from the New York crowd, sitting by the men’s singles trophy as he took in the tennis action from the Rolex suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The trophy placement, per Rothenberg, marked “a complete break from normal protocols.”
And that was reportedly just the beginning of the saga.
“When it came time for that trophy to be on court,” Rothenberg wrote, “there was an apparent concern that Trump would grow antsy without a shiny object next to him.”
He continued, “A solution was found: the men’s doubles trophy, completely irrelevant to Sunday’s proceedings, was brought up to the Rolex suite to sit next to Trump for the remainder of his stay.”
The men’s doubles trophy was awarded to Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos a day before the singles match went down.
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Pictures from the singles final appear to show that the trophies were swapped out at some point.
Rothenberg also reported that officials with the U.S. Tennis Association — the tournament’s organizer — were concerned that the president wanted to present the trophy to the eventual champion or address the crowd, instances that ultimately never occurred.
HuffPost has reached out to the U.S. Open for comment.
Trump, who is visiting Ireland for the Amgen Irish Open golf tournament this weekend, is not expected to zip back to the States for this year’s men’s final on Sunday.
The president, of course, has made a habit making major sporting events about himself.
Back in July, he was accused of trying to steal the Spain men’s national soccer team’s moment after he stuck around onstage following the World Cup trophy presentation.
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