Once friends, President Donald Trump and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft are both expected at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Sunday.
A reunion, however, may be out of the question as the 83-year-old Kraft admits he hasn’t spoken to the 78-year-old Trump since the President’s supporters infiltrated Congress on January 6, 2021.
‘I was very upset [with] what happened January 6,’ Kraft told Fox News. ‘And I haven’t talked to [Trump] since then.’
The billionaire chief executive officer of the Kraft Group and long-time Democrat did not expand on his answer.
The remarried widower did remember a touching phone call he received from Trump when Kraft’s first wife, Myra, died from ovarian cancer in 2011.
‘Donald Trump became a social friend in the early ’90s, when I was going down to Florida,’ Kraft said. ‘And then when my wife … died 13 years ago, he was one of four or five people who reached out to me and was really, really nice.’
Robert Kraft and wife Dana Blumberg attend Michael Rubin’s 2025 Fanatics Super Bowl Party
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, April 19, 2017
Pro-Trump protesters storm into the U.S. Capitol during clashes with police, during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress
Kraft was so moved by the gesture that he later donated $1 million to Trump’s first inaugural fund, which raised a then-record of $107 million in January of 2017. However, Kraft did not appear to donate to this year’s inaugural fund, although Trump still managed to raise a new record of $170 million anyway.
Now, though, Kraft looks back on his donation with some bemusement.
‘The only donation I ever gave to him was he called me when he got elected, and I made a strong donation to his inauguration. I couldn’t believe it,’ he told Fox. ‘It was like having someone who was a drunk fraternity brother become president of the United States.’
As for Tom Brady, a one-time golf buddy of Trump’s, Kraft remained supportive of the Patriots legend’s foray into the announcer’s booth.
Brady has faced some criticism during the first season of his 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox Sports, but Kraft remains supportive of his friend and former employee.
‘I think the way he has presented the nuances of the game, things that fans would never see, is truly special and unique, and Fox was brilliant to attract him,’ Kraft said.
Brady will be calling his first Super Bowl on Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles clash at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Tom Brady will be calling his first Super Bowl on Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles clash at the Superdome in New Orleans
Although Kraft did not articulate his specific grievances with Trump over January 6, the 47th President has faced considerable criticism over the 2021 riot and his handling of the convicted participants.
Trump began his second term with sweeping pardons to the 1,500-plus people charged for the doomed effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, including those arrested for violent attacks on police. More than 100 officers were injured that day and one Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by authorities.
Since their release from prison, some January 6 defendants have issued threats to authorities who worked to convict them.
‘We’ll never forget, we’ll never forgive. You can’t get rid of us,’ a California chapter of the far-right Proud Boys wrote on social media.
Enrique Tarrio, the ex-Proud Boys leader whose 22-year sentence on seditious conspiracy charges was scrapped by Trump, threatened jail terms for prosecutors in a recent interview with Alex Jones.
‘The people who did this, they need to feel the heat,’ Tarrio said. ‘We need to find and put them behind bars for what they did.’
