WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump will huddle with allies and a Republican cause célèbre at Saturday’s Army-Navy football game, a chance to take in one of most stories rivalries in college sports while spotlighting his emerging national security team.
Trump is expected to be joined by Vice President-elect JD Vance, embattled Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, potential backup defense option Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others for the 125th matchup between service academies.
Also planning to attend is Daniel Penny, a military veteran who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide this week in the chokehold death of an agitated subway rider in New York. Penny was invited by Vance, who accused prosecutors of trying to “ruin” Penny’s life by charging the Marine veteran in the death of Jordan Neely in 2023.
Trump, who attended Army-Navy games as president-elect in 2016 and during his first terms, has been making an increasing number of public appearances before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. He was accompanied by his family and Vance on Thursday as he rang the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized as Time magazine’s person of the year.
Trump spent the weeks after the Nov. 5 election holed up at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida assembling a team to help lead his next administration. He and his aides have become bullish about Hegseth’s chances of winning Senate confirmation. The Army combat veteran and former Fox News host’s chances of becoming defense secretary had appeared in peril amid allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat.
DeSantis, a former Navy lawyer who competed against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, is among the possible replacement candidates Trump has considered if Hegseth’s bid fizzles.
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said Friday in a Newsmax interview that Hegseth has “made it through the gauntlet.” Miller predicted Hegseth will be confirmed.
“This is someone who’s literally been shot at on the battlefield,” Miller added. “That’s the type of person who I want leading the (Department of Defense) because as we make these decisions about whether or not to put American troops into harm’s way, I want someone who knows at a personal level what that’s like before you go and send some young man or young woman into battle.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is also expected to attend the game and bring with him a contingent of other GOP lawmakers vying for face time with the incoming president weeks before Republicans take control of the three branches of the federal government.
Johnson said he intends to discuss with Trump plans for a legislative package that could move through Congress next year with a simple majority in the face of expected Democratic opposition.
Vance said Friday that Penny, a fellow Marine veteran, had accepted his invitation to be in Trump’s suite on the Army side. Penny was cleared of criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death after a judge had dismissed a more serious manslaughter charge last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.
The case was a flashpoint in the long-standing debates over racial justice and as well as failures by New York City to address homelessness and mental illness, both of which Neely had struggled with.
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance said in a post on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”
Hegseth planned to be in a suite with some Medal of Honor recipients, according to a person familiar with Hegseth’s schedule.
Trump’s picks for Navy secretary, John Phelan, a businessman who never served in the military, and for Army secretary, Dan Driscoll, an Iraq War veteran and former senior adviser to Vance, also are expected to attend, said the person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss those details and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kickoff is after 3 p.m. EST at Northwest Stadium, home to the NFL’s Washington Commanders, in Landover, Maryland.
Army (11-1) is ranked 19th in The Associated Press Top 25 after beating Tulane on Dec. 6 to win the American Athletic Conference — the first league title of any kind in the team’s 134-year history. Navy (8-3) was ranked earlier this season after starting with six straight victories
Madhani reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. AP Sports Writer Noah Trister in Baltimore and Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.