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Ballpark Boos a Rarity for Shielded US President

Associated Press

   NEW YORK - The boos were loud. And for President Donald Trump, they may
   have felt unfamiliar.

   Trump was showered with jeers, boos and chants (as well as some cheers)
   when he attended a World Series game at Nationals Park in Washington on
   Sunday. It was a rare moment of in-your-face disapproval for a
   president whose White House goes out of the way to shield him from
   protests and demonstrators.

   Since taking office, Trump has rarely ventured out to places in his
   deeply Democratic adopted home city or elsewhere that might feature
   high-volume hostility or a cold shoulder.

   When the boos began as Trump's image flashed on the ballpark's giant
   video screen, the president seemed momentarily taken aback. He mouthed
   something to his wife, Melania Trump, while gamely trying to clap
   along. But his smile froze and then faded as the boos continued and
   some in the crowd launched into a brief chant of "Lock him up," a
   version of the phrase chanted against Hillary Clinton at dozens of
   Trump rallies during the 2016 campaign.

   White House officials tried to play down the negative feedback, which
   erupted when Trump's image appeared on the giant video screen during a
   tribute to the military.

   "I know that there were some people cheering as well. But, listen, it's
   Washington D.C. It's a pretty liberal town," White House spokesman
   Hogan Gidley said Monday.

   Though White House officials were prepared for jeers in a ballpark
   located in a city where only 4 percent of residents voted for Trump,
   some thought the president's announcement hours earlier about the death
   of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might temper some of the
   boos. That proved not to be the case, despite efforts to limit the
   heckling.

   The presidential motorcade pulled into Nats Park a little after 8 p.m.
   allowing the president to slip inside the stadium while fans were
   focused on the start of the game and the ceremonial first pitch thrown
   by restaurateur and humanitarian Jose Andres, a noted Trump critic.
   Trump took his seat in a luxury box with a sea of friendly faces,
   including Republican legislators.

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