Fox News host Brian Kilmeade had people raising eyebrows after he claimed President Donald Trump's presidency is a "normal" one because of the various championship-winning sports teams who have visited the White House as of late.
One day before the Philadelphia Eagles were scheduled to visit the White House—and shortly after Trump hosted the World Series champion Dodgers—Kilmeade argued that because the Dodgers had been welcomed there and Trump recently interacted with basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal, everything was "normal," in his words.
He said:
“I think in Trump term 2, people are seeing him as the American president, not the MAGA one. I mean, for example ... Vince Vaughn in the Oval Office. Unsolicited. Just wanted to say hi. Do you remember when President Trump went to the UFC event? Guess who walked over. 7-foot, 1-inch Shaq, Shaquille O’Neal. Just to say hi."
"Or, a World Series championship team showed up at the White House. Guess what? Everyone showed up. The L.A. Dodgers. There they are. From the left coast meeting the right conservative president."
"It truly feels in many ways like we’re back to a normal presidency. You know, where you’re critical of policies you don’t like and supportive of the ones you do like.”
You can hear his remarks in the video below.
For Kilmeade to make such a claim, he would have had to ignore the broader reality that has facilitated the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S.
The administration has summarily fired or placed thousands of federal employees on leave, with courts reversing the firings of at least two government watchdog officials. It attempted to freeze up to $3 trillion in federal funding under the advisory of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The administration has shown open hostility toward transgender Americans, kicking them out of the military and weaponizing their very existence. On April 28, the White House issued a release claiming absurdly that "under President Biden, the Federal government promoted a grotesque social and scientific experiment on American children."
The administration has also come under fire amid the ongoing immigration scandal involving wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Justice Department has since acknowledged that his removal violated a 2019 court order, calling it an error. Nonetheless, officials maintain they still consider him a threat based on the original allegations and have ignored a Supreme Court order to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.
Trump also issued an executive order aimed at denying U.S. citizenship to children born in the country after a certain date if their parents were undocumented or only in the U.S. temporarily. The administration has empowered immigration agents to enter houses of worship, accelerated and expanded deportations, sought to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities, and made it harder for refugees to seek asylum in the U.S.
Most recently, three young U.S. citizen children—including one with cancer—were deported to Honduras alongside their mothers last week, according to advocacy groups and the families' attorneys. One of the children, a four-year-old with Stage 4 cancer, was reportedly deported without medication.
And let's not forget that Democrats have called for Hegseth's firing amid revelations that Hegseth shared details about U.S. military operations in Yemen using his personal phone in a 13-person Signal group chat that included his wife and brother—despite a prior warning from an aide advising him not to share sensitive information over an unsecure channel ahead of the operation.
That news comes just weeks after Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was invited into a Signal chat with high-level Trump administration officials, particularly Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance, discussing military strategy surrounding war strikes in Yemen.
Oh, and how could we forget Trump has escalated a growing trade war by imposing tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports, prompting China to retaliate with its own 125% tariffs on American goods? Additionally, the U.S. has slapped a 10% tax on imports from most other countries, while temporarily suspending higher rates for several nations for 90 days.
No, none of this is in fact "normal," as many critics pointed out.
Nice try though, Brian.
