Rachel Maddow has a field day as Trump drowned in boos and middle fingers at NBA Finals

Rachel Maddow could hardly contain her glee Monday night as she walked viewers through the frosty reception President Donald Trump received outside Madison Square Garden, where he was loudly booed before Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.

"Do you want to see the warm, warm welcome the president of the United States got tonight when he decided to pretend to be a basketball fan?" Maddow asked before rolling footage of fans greeting Trump's arrival with jeers and raised middle fingers.

"When they're waving at you with just one finger, it doesn't mean the same as another kind of wave," Maddow quipped.

The MS NOW host noted that Trump's visit had real costs for ordinary New Yorkers. Fans faced security waits of two hours or more, and the city's planned free watch party outside the arena was scrapped and relocated by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Bryant Park to accommodate the heightened security.

Maddow played the moment twice, savoring it.

Maddow quickly tore apart Trump's claim that New York adores him.

"Trump likes to claim that New York loves him. New York does not," she said, pointing out that Trump and JD Vance pulled just 17% of the Manhattan vote in 2024 — "not 70%, 17%."

Trump was thunderously booed when shown on the Jumbotron alongside Knicks owner James Dolan during the national anthem, a clip Maddow also played, mocking the president.

"Gotta smile through it. Maybe they have a nickname for me that has an ooh sound in the middle of it," she joked, mimicking the president trying to spin the jeers as cheers.

The Knicks entered the night up 2-0, chasing their first title since 1973.