This past week has been nothing but eventful in the world of politics. American citizens in Puerto Rico are still looking for some type of relief from the government, the Russian collusion investigation is heating up, Kim Jong-Un is not playing with his nuclear missiles that can clearly go the distance, and a trash “repeal and replace” health care bill is floating around congress. Even with all this going on Trump saw it appropriate to shade professional athletes, Colin Kaepernick to be specific, at a campaign rally in Alabama saying – “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when someone disrespects our flag, to say get that SOB off the field, right now. Out, he’s fired.” Trump obviously hasn’t found his transition from being a television personality on The Apprentice to being president.
That is just the beginning; Trump later decided to move from the NFL to the NBA, calling Stephen Curry out on Twitter by rescinding his invitation to come to the White House. Only thing is, Curry had already stated he had no interest and wasn’t going to go. That’s like a guy asking a girl for her number and then when she rejects him, he goes, “You ugly anyways.”
Trump’s comments sparked much response. Regarding the statements made about Curry, LeBron James stepped in calling Trump a bum. Colin Kaepernick’s mother, Teresa Kaepernick, clapped back to Trump’s remark about her son by tweeting, “Guess that makes me a proud bitch!” In addition to that, many NFL teams decided to either kneel or lock arms during the national anthem during Sunday’s games. Three teams decided to not even go out on the field at all during the national anthem – Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, and Tennessee Titans.
Of course, after all the clapback Trump received he decided to hop back onto social media and continue to tweet about how disrespectful players who kneel are, how it is unpatriotic, how the NFL should be boycotted, and that the players should be fired. It’s kind of ironic how quick he is to condemn NFL players who don’t support what he stands for or an anthem that is in favor of African slavery, but how he couldn’t even condemn white nationalism and neo-Nazism without faulting both sides during the Charlottesville protests.
The protest taking place through professional athletes and the different sports teams are vital because they are using their platform to hold demonstrations against apparent wrong in this country. What’s sad is that the so-called president wants to expend all his energy arguing over sports protests, but can’t come out with appropriate presidential statements concerning political emergencies. When he finally decided to even talk about Puerto Rico he said, “This is an island. Surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water.”