A year after making history by attending the Super Bowl, Donald Trump has decided to give this year’s event a miss.
This Sunday (February 8), Levi’s Stadium will be packed with NFL fans eager to watch the Seattle Seahawks face off against the New England Patriots. However, the US president will not be among the attendees. The two teams last met in the 2015 Super Bowl, where the Patriots narrowly defeated the Seahawks 28-24.
Rock band Green Day is set to kick off the game, while the acclaimed Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will headline the halftime show, fresh off winning two Grammys last weekend.
Both performers have previously expressed criticism of Donald Trump and the increased activity of ICE.
Speaking to the New York Post, Trump expressed his discontent with their Super Bowl participation, stating, “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
The location of this year’s Super Bowl also influences Trump’s decision not to attend.
While last year’s event was held at Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, this year’s game is at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clarita, California, on the opposite side of the country.
“It’s just too far away. I would. I’ve [gotten] great hands [at] the Super Bowl. They like me,” Trump said. “I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”
Trump made history as the first serving US president to attend the Super Bowl, where he witnessed the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 40–22 last year.
His attendance imposed a hefty cost on the Secret Service, although it wasn’t his most expensive sporting event of the year.
Front Office Sports reported that Trump’s attendance at the 2025 Super Bowl cost the US Secret Service (USSS) over $123,000.
Approximately $115,000 of this was spent on hotel accommodations, according to records released by the agency following a Freedom of Information Act request from Front Office Sports.
The USSS is responsible for the protection of Trump and other key government officials, as well as foreign heads of state visiting the United States.
A spokesperson for the USSS informed Front Office Sports that agents typically arrive days before Trump to prepare the location he plans to visit, while Axios noted that ‘several hundred agents’ were expected to arrive in New Orleans five days prior to the February 9, 2025 game.
The total hotel costs amounted to $123,411.81, with more than $65,000 paid to nine different hotels, three of which charged over $16,000 each.
Nearly $18,000 of the total went to a Margaritaville Resort. Additionally, the agency made two payments of approximately $25,000 each to lodging services and spent over $7,000 on payments to the NFL.
USSS Director Sean Curran also attended the game, where the agency aired a recruitment ad inside the stadium during pregame, which cost about $2 million to produce.
The documents did not include other significant expenses such as meals, travel, or agent pay. Just imagine the savings by Trump not attending this year…
Just six days after the Super Bowl, Trump traveled to Florida for the Daytona 500, the opening event of the NASCAR season.
The Secret Service spent $561,842.63 on Trump’s trip, as reported by Front Office Sports last month.
Recent documents reveal that the USSS incurred expenses of $561,842.63 for a visit to the Daytona 500, which Trump attended last February. Over half of this amount was allocated to hotel costs alone.
The expenditures covered protection for Trump, his son Eric, his daughter-in-law Lara, and two of his grandchildren. Most of the funds were spent on accommodations and event-related services.
Hotel expenses amounted to $335,448.26, distributed across 11 hotels. Individual payments varied from about $8,300 to more than $75,000 at an official Walt Disney World hotel. An additional $213,738.20 was paid to an event company for tents, fans, and heaters.
The agency also allocated $8,832 for a ‘purchase adjustment’ related to lodging or temporary duty.
Smaller expenses included $3,544.18 paid to Daytona International Speedway for bike racks and $279.99 spent at Bubbles Car Wash for fleet management.
During the visit, Trump’s motorcade took a lap around the track.
It’s something to consider next time you feel guilty about spending a few hundred dollars on a concert or vacation…