ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump confirmed he will attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday at Madison Square Garden, but said he doesn't have much sympathy for ordinary basketball fans who can't afford sky-high ticket prices to do the same.
“They can watch it on television,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday as he flew to Wisconsin for an event with farmers, after he was asked about tickets that have climbed as high as $8,000 each when the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs square off in Manhattan for the first time in the series.
"It’s sorta semi-free to watch it on television,” the president added. “That’s the way life goes.”
Trump further noted that if the Knicks weren't successful — as they haven't been most seasons since last advancing to the finals in 1999 — “you could go very easily.”
The president of course doesn't have to purchase tickets to attend major sporting events. Trump has been to a lot of them in his second term, including the 2025 Super Bowl, Daytona 500 and Ryder Cup.
But a centerpiece of his reelection campaign was a promise to tame inflation and bring down the price of groceries and other cost-of-living essentials. He has increasingly come under pressure to make good on that pledge as November midterm elections draw nearer — and as the war in Iran has caused gas prices to spike and global commodities markets to wobble, raising new fears about inflation and the strength of the U.S. economy.
A longtime Knicks fan, Trump said on Air Force One that he watched Game 1, which New York won 105-95 in San Antonio. “I think the Knicks have an amazing team the way they played," he said.
“Started off slow and it just got stronger and stronger," Trump said of Game 1. He pointed to Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns when asked to name his favorite player on the team.
Trump was also asked about Spurs star Victor Wembanyama having stood with his arms crossed for the national anthem before Game 1. That touched off a conservative firestorm online, even though Wembanyama is French, meaning his country's anthem wasn't being played.
Trump was complimentary of Wembanyama, saying that he “looks like he's gonna be a great player.” But he ducked a chance to weigh in on the national anthem controversy, suggesting he'd not seen Wembanyamba's crossed arms.
"Is that what he did? What did he mean by that?” Trump asked, before recommending that reporters seek the answer from Wembanyama himself.
Trump confirming his attendance for Game 3 follows NBA Commissioner Adam Silver saying on Wednesday that a presidential appearance at a finals game might be unifying in “our increasingly divided society.”
“It creates a sense of connectivity among people," Silver said. "It creates a sense of belonging, and I feel that every day.”
Weissert reported from Washington.
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An earlier version of this story said the Knicks were last in the NBA Finals in 1994. The last year the team competed in the Finals was 1999.
President Donald Trump walks to his motorcade vehicle after talking with reporters Friday, June 5, 2026, at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Eau Claire, Wis. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
New York Knicks fans pose at a subway entrance in New York decorated in team colors as the Knicks play the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Joint Base Andrews, Md., to Eau Claire, Wis., Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Energy Department says a small nuclear reactor under development at a national lab has reached a crucial milestone that could allow it to produce electricity within a few years.
The microreactor being developed by Antares Nuclear Inc. at the Idaho National Lab reached “criticality” on Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. The milestone occurs when a nuclear reactor achieves a self-sustaining chain reaction capable of producing a steady release of energy.
Antares is the first private company to bring an advanced reactor to criticality under a pilot program begun last year by the Trump administration meant to supercharge nuclear energy production in the U.S. The demonstration was conducted in partnership with the Energy Department and other contractors with support from the U.S. Army.
“We are very excited by this news today,” Wright said Friday on a call with reporters. “I think June 4th will be a historic day in the American nuclear renaissance.”
Antares and its partners "have shown America can do bold things,” Wright added. “America has great technology, great entrepreneurs that are ready to drive energy innovation to power our future, lower energy costs and make our country more powerful."
The achievement shows that the Trump administration’s push to remove regulatory barriers is helping to advance new nuclear technologies, Wright said.
President Donald Trump signed executive orders in May 2025 intended to speed up the development of nuclear power, including steps that grant Wright authority to approve some advanced reactor designs and projects. Trump's orders limit some authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent safety agency that has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades.
Skeptics warn that nuclear energy poses risks and say microreactors may not be safe or feasible and have not proved they can meet demand for a reasonable price.
While the Antares system is years away from commercial use, achieving criticality is a notable step. The California-based company, which is initially targeting military applications, said it expects to begin producing electricity by late 2027 and see its systems deployed in the field by the end of 2028, CEO Jordan Bramble said Friday.
"Nuclear in America has been defined for too long by delays, by companies that said they would and then didn’t,” Bramble said in a written statement.
At a briefing on Friday, Bramble said achieving criticality “is the first step on a roadmap toward producing electricity ahead of deploying this technology for customer sites.”
“Microreactors are a technology that’s here today," he added. “2026 is the year where microreactors are becoming real. We’re months to years out from being able to start deploying this technology to military installations.”
The Trump administration has set a goal of achieving the criticality milestone in at least three test reactors by July 4 — the nation's 250th anniversary.
Officials have selected 11 advanced reactor projects, including Antares, to move their technologies toward deployment.
In February, the Pentagon and the Energy Department for the first time airlifted a small nuclear reactor from California to Utah, demonstrating what they say is the country's potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use. The nearly 700-mile flight transported a 5-megawatt microreactor manufactured by Valar Atomics in southern California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
The reactor — which did not have nuclear fuel — eventually will be able to generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, said Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Valar Atomics. The company hopes to start selling power on a test basis next year and become fully commercial in 2028, he said.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the transport flight, which attracted significant news coverage, was little more than a publicity stunt.
He offered a similar response to the claims by Antares and Wright.
“This stunt is a rudimentary first step that has absolutely no bearing on whether the Antares reactor will be safe or commercially viable,” Lyman said in an email Friday.
The Energy Department's statement that the test “confirms that the reactor can operate safely” is false, Lyman said, adding that more testing of the reactor is needed.
The administration has not resolved how nuclear waste will be disposed, although Wright has said the Energy Department is in talks with Utah and other states to host sites that could reprocess fuel or handle permanent disposal. States including Tennessee, Nebraska and Idaho have expressed interest in handling nuclear waste.
FILE - Energy Secretary Chris Wright, center, and Under Secretary of Defense Michael Duffey, left, listen as Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Valar Atomics, discusses a microreactor developed by Valar to generate nuclear power for the military and commercial customers, Feb. 15, 2026, in-flight, on board a C-17. (AP Photo/Matthew Daly, File)
FILE - Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks during an event, May 4, 2026, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
