President Donald Trump addressed the crowd at Sunday’s Presidents Cup golf tournament in suburban Medinah, saying “Our country is doing great, better than ever before.”
Hundreds gathered at the first hole of the tournament, where Trump lauded the country’s position under his leadership and said he was looking forward to watching golf pros.
The crowd chanted “USA, USA, USA,” drowning out some scattered boos, before he took the stage, and spectators shook red, white and blue pom poms and American flags.
“You know, the fake news media will say I got a very bad reception,” Trump said to start his remarks.
He joked that people were there to see golf, not listen to speeches, and said he looked forward to watching “the greatest players in the world” at the tournament.
Some chants of “four more years” broke out following Trump’s remarks, and he pumped his fist and cheered.
Secret Service agents dotted the tournament grounds, and spectators were required to go through metal detectors and other security measures because of Trump’s presence.
Trump greeted and shook hands with each pair of U.S. and international team members before they started the fifth and final round of the tournament, which began Thursday at the Medinah Country Club.
The country club has a storied history as an elite golf club, with well-known members such as former Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, and Bob Hope and Bing Crosby occasionally attending as guests. The club only began accepting women and Black people in the 1990s.
Trump received a relatively warm reception inside the tournament, but protesters have gathered since his anticipated presence was announced, saying he’s not welcome in the area and his policies hurt Americans.
“And it’s not just immigrant communities. Everybody is suffering under this administration,” Ellen Zhao, an organizer with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said at the time. “We are all feeling benefit cuts, SNAP cuts, access to Medicaid. All of that is getting cut.”
A handful of demonstrators, both pro- and anti-Trump, gathered around 9:30 a.m. Sunday outside the tournament before Trump’s arrival.
Trump was serving as the tournament’s honorary chairman, which he also did in 2017 at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey during his first presidency.
It’s the first visit Trump has made to Illinois in his second presidency. Last time, he was in the state was his inflammatory visit to the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago in 2024, where he responded combatively to the moderator’s questions and ridiculed his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, for being biracial.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said at the time.
Harris is Black and Indian, born in Oakland, California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father.