As President Trump prepares to watch his hometown New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden next week, local and federal officials are planning for a heightened security posture, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the planning.
The president is expected to travel to New York City to watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday, according to the official White House schedule. Mr. Trump said he was invited by Knicks owner James Dolan, and described himself as a “big fan” of the team. The Knicks lead the best-of-seven series 2-0.
As a result, the security footprint will look very different from the first two games of the series in San Antonio, with hundreds of U.S. Secret Service officers and agents deployed on Monday, along with thousands of New York Police Department personnel, sources said.
A hard closure is expected around the entirety of Madison Square Garden. Officials are planning for no watch parties, no vehicle access and no pedestrian travel through the secured area, which sits in a busy part of Midtown Manhattan and is above a major transit hub. CBS New York reported that thousands of fans attended a pair of watch parties for Game 1 on Wednesday night.
The Seventh and Eighth Avenue corridors around the arena are expected to be closed.
Only ticketed fans will be allowed to enter Madison Square Garden, and they will go through Secret Service-level screening before entering — similar to the Transportation Security Administration’s screening process at airports. No bags will be permitted, and attendees are advised not to bring purses, backpacks or totes of any size, law enforcement sources said.
Checkpoints are expected to open at 6:30 p.m., two hours prior to the scheduled tipoff, and fans are encouraged to arrive early. Magnetometers can screen roughly 300 people per hour, and officials expect to have dozens operating to process tens of thousands of attendees.
“It’s the first president that’s ever come in to go to a basketball playoff game. So you can imagine the Garden is gonna have 50,000 fans, now you’ve got a presidential motorcade coming in, streets sealed off,” former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Rich Esposito told CBS New York.
Penn Station — which sits directly underneath the arena — will remain open, and officials do not expect any impact on service in the nation’s busiest train station.
Mr. Trump will be the first sitting president to attend an NBA game since 2015, when former President Barack Obama watched the season opener between his hometown Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also planning to go to Game 3, but he told reporters he “will be in a very different section of the stadium” from Mr. Trump.
The security surrounding the president has drawn intense scrutiny over the last two years, following two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign and a third alleged attempt on his life during last month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The Secret Service has a long history of operating in Manhattan, which is home to the president’s former primary residence at Trump Tower. And Mr. Trump last visited Madison Square Garden for a campaign rally in 2024.
Since returning to the White House, he has attended several sporting events, including the Super Bowl last year in New Orleans, the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Miami earlier this year and the FIFA Club World Cup Final in New Jersey last year.
