Tuesday was not a good day for Donald Trump.
His favorite athlete went to the White House to celebrate winning the Super Bowl – and Trump wasn’t there. And what’s worse? They laughed at him!
Yes, Tom Brady – famed quarterback of the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers – was at the White House to celebrate that victory with President Joe Biden.
And yes, Brady, who is not exactly known for his comedic timing, trolled Trump’s ongoing insistence that he won the 2020 election.
“Not a lot of people think that we could have won. In fact, I think about 40% of people still don’t think we won. You understand that, Mr. President?” Brady said to laughter.
“I understand that,” Biden chuckled.
Know who probably wasn’t laughing? Donald John Trump. Trump has made no mystery of his feelings for Brady over the years.
“What an amazing comeback and win by the Patriots,” Trump tweeted after the New England Patriots won the 2017 Super Bowl. “Tom Brady, Bob Kraft and Coach B are total winners. Wow!”
Trump was even more effusive in a tweet in September 2015: “Congratulations to Tom Brady on yet another great victory- Tom is my friend and a total winner!” And in 2014: “Tom Brady is a good friend of mine, a great player, a great guy and a total winner! Fantastic comeback win-this is what our country needs!”
You get the idea. Trump likes Brady. Like, a lot.
Brady for his part, has said the two men are friends and supported Trump in 2016. But in an interview with Howard Stern in the spring of 2020, he seemed to be backing away from that support. Here’s the key bit:
“The whole political aspect came, and I think I got brought into a lot of those things because it was so polarizing around the election time. It was uncomfortable for me. You can’t undo things — not that I would undo a friendship — but the political support is totally different than the support of a friend.”
Whether or not Brady and Trump remain friends is tough to know. What’s not tough to figure out is that Trump will be hurt and offended not just that Brady went to the White House to celebrate a Super Bowl with Joe Biden but also that Tom Terrific took a direct shot at the “Big Lie.”
The Point: If you don’t think Trump a) watched this or b) cares deeply about it, well then you don’t know Trump.