Baish’s Opinion| President Trump slammed co-captain of the United States Women National Soccer team, Megan Rapinoe, this week after she repeatedly protested the national anthem during the Women’s World Cup games.
According to Breitbart News, Trump “finally spoke up about Rapinoe’s protests, which started two weeks ago, during an interview with the Hill on Monday.”
The President explained that he has been enjoying the games held in France. “I love watching women’s soccer,” he said. “They’re really talented.”
When President Trump was asked if he felt the Women’s soccer star should be protesting against the United States while representing our nation overseas, he stated, “No. I don’t think so.”
Breitbart reports:
Rapinoe has refused to stand at attention, place her hand over hr heart, and sing the anthem during the international games being held in France this month.
The U.S. soccer co-captain telegraphed her World Cup actions in May when she announced, “I’ll probably never put my hand over my heart. I’ll probably never sing the national anthem again.”
Rapinoe spent part of the 2018 season taking a knee during the anthem until the team put a rule in place requiring the players to stand during the anthem.
The U.S. team has won its first three games in the tournament including a 13-0 blowout of Thailand and a 2-1 win over Spain.
Rapinoe spoke to Yahoo Sports in May, saying that her decision to kneel during the national anthem put her at the receiving end of a lot of backlash.
She stated, “Using this blanketed patriotism as a defense against what the protest actually is was pretty cowardly. I think the NFL does it. I felt like the statement from U.S. Soccer, and then the rule they made without ever talking to me, that was the same as what the NFL was doing – just to not have the conversation, to try to just stop me from doing what I’m doing instead of at least having a conversation, and trying to figure out a [solution] that makes sense for everyone.”
The soccer co-captain labeled herself as a “walking protest,” saying that she feels that the Trump White House does not “value all Americans equally.”
“I feel like it’s kind of defiance in and of itself to just be who I am and wear the jersey, and represent it,” she told Yahoo Sports. “Because I’m as talented as I am, I get to be here, you don’t get to tell me if I can be here or not. So it’s kind of a good ‘F you’ to any sort of inequality or bad sentiments that the administration might have towards people who don’t look exactly like him. Which, God help us if we all looked like him. Scary. Really scary. Ahh, disturbing.”
According to Fox News, “Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem before her match against the Chicago Red Stars in 2016. She called her actions a ‘little nod’ to Kaepernick and ‘everything that he’s standing for right now.’”
