Cardi B brought her Latin banger “Bodega Baddie” to the NBA Finals halftime show, but she says the vibe inside Madison Square Garden felt a little off. The reason? President Donald Trump was in the building.
The president became the first sitting commander in chief to attend an NBA Finals game on Monday, June 8, when he showed up for Game 3 between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks were playing their first Finals game at the Garden since 1999, so the energy should have been electric. But Cardi felt something dark in the air.
She hopped on Instagram Live early Tuesday, June 9, eating a SpongeBob SquarePants ice cream bar while breaking down the night. When a fan suggested Trump’s presence brought bad luck, Cardi did not hold back.
“It probably was,” she said. “You can’t stop the president from going to a game, but it did feel a little dark in there. It’s OK.”
She later compared the atmosphere to having the principal show up unannounced. “It felt like the principal was there and everybody had to be on their best behavior,” Cardi told her followers.
The Grammy winner performed a three-minute halftime set alongside the Knicks City Dancers. She ran through “Bodega Baddie,” her Latin-rooted track that has been heating up playlists, and closed with her breakout smash “Bodak Yellow,” the song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2017.
After her performance, Cardi took in the rest of the game sitting baseline right next to the Spurs bench with her son Wave, whom she shares with estranged husband Offset. She joked on her IG Story, “They got me right next to the opps! But I’mma be nice, ’cause I know this is a lot for them.”
Trump’s attendance came with serious security. Streets surrounding Madison Square Garden got shut down, and fans faced long delays just getting inside. Cardi B admitted she saw Secret Service agents up close for the first time after they rerouted traffic around her car.
“You know how you always wonder how they look? Yeah, I saw them in person,” she said. “They were in front of my car. They were making us do mad circles. I wasn’t even gonna complain because I kinda get it.”
Cardi has been critical of Trump in the past, but she understood the extra security measures came with the territory. That did not stop her from keeping it real about the energy shift. She did not blame Trump for the Knicks’ loss outright, but she also did not have to…
