Yankees manager Aaron Boone discusses President Trump’s attendance on 9/11

NEW YORK – President Donald Trump will be in the Bronx on Thursday night for the New York Yankees’ game against the Detroit Tigers, coinciding with the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

It will be Trump’s first time attending a baseball game in his second term as president, having last attended the 2021 World Series.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said at a press conference before the game that he is “excited” to be a part of Trump’s presence.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM 

“I think he’s going to come down and come into the locker room for a minute. Had the honor and fortune of some presidents over the years, first pitches or whatever it may be,” Boone told reporters before the game. “So the fact that he’s gonna be here, I’m excited to be a part of. I don’t know what it’ll be like, but to interact with him for a few minutes, something I’m looking forward to.”

Security is boosted to TSA levels at Yankee Stadium, which includes sniffing dogs on the premises. Trump was at the Pentagon earlier in the day for a 9/11 ceremony, less than 24 hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Boone is in his eighth season as Yankees manager, becoming a de facto New Yorker during his tenure. But at the time of the attacks, he was with the Cincinnati Reds organization. However, the sport of baseball played a vital role in bringing normalcy back.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone looked on during batting practice before a game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11, 2024, in New York. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

SPORTS WORLD REACTS TO CHARLIE KIRK SHOOTING DEATH: ‘PRAYERS FOR HIS FAMILY’

“Making sense of it and what it all meant, and now with my connection to the Yankees and knowing what the Yankees, the Mets, and really baseball overall, the role that our sport played in whatever it was. Healing, normalcy, something. To see that postseason live out and watching it from afar was very meaningful. And then the sobering reflection of today of the lives lost, the heroic things that took place on that day by so many. So it’s always a sobering day, a day of reflection, but also a day of as a sport, there’s some pride in the role our sport played in that time,” Boone said.

Before the gates opened, Boone and pitchers Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon laid a wreath at the 9/11 monument in Monument Park. Boone said the gesture was “really meaningful.”

“Really meaningful. I’ve gotten to do that a few times when we’ve been here. To get to walk out there with Gerrit and Carlos and just really take in an amazing monument, see the Pentagon and see the Twin Towers and the police dogs and the firemen all honored on there. Hits home,” he said.

Aaron Boone, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón of the New York Yankees placed a wreath at the Sept. 11, 2001, monument before a game against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11, 2025, in New York. (New York Yankees/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“I think you just wake up, and it’s different today. A couple years ago, we had the game over at Citi Field where it was Mets-Yankees, and there was some bigness and meaningfulness to that. Knowing how many personal stories there are to the people that will be in the building tonight, the people that were in the building that night at Citi Field, and to field that kind of raw emotion in the building, you just look around, you see people with tears in their eyes, that buzz but silence. And I felt that a number of times in this chair on this day.”

The Yanks and Mets will play at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11 next year, the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.