Trump predicts Patriots will win Super Bowl by 8 points

President Donald Trump predicted the New England Patriots would win Super Bowl LI by 8 points in a Fox News interview airing before the game. 

“Well, I hate to make predictions, but I’ll say, I don’t even know what are the odds, I guess it’s pretty even, so I’ll say the Patriots will win by 8 points,” Trump told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly.

“Well I like Bob Kraft. I like Coach Belichick and Tom Brady’s my friend,” Trump said. 

Trump has spoken often about his friendship with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who will play in his seventh Super Bowl game Sunday evening.

But when pressed by O’Reilly if he was rooting for the Patriots, Trump said the opposing team, the Atlanta Falcons, is “fantastic.”

“I think the other team is fantastic though. No I think it’s a fantastic team, turns out to be a good quarterback,” he said.

“But you know there’s less pressure on the Patriots because they’ve been there. You know once you’ve won, and you’ve done it, and they’ve done it, once you’ve done it there’s a lot less pressure. So we’ll see what happens but you know you have to stick up for your friends, right?”

Vice President Mike Pence will be attending the championship game, where former President George H.W. Bush will do the start of game coin toss.

In 2015, a red “Make America Great Again” hat was seen in Brady’s locker, though Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, said in November that she and her husband do not support Trump.