Trump has made a giant show for his bigoted supporters of bashing NFL players for kneeling in protest of police brutality during the national anthem. He’s demanded their firing and called them a “son of a b*tch” as the crowds at his rallies cheered with glee at having a racist president again.
In fact, Trump seems to spend an inordinate amount of time tweeting about the protests by NFL players. While Puerto Rico was still devastated by Hurricane Maria and healthcare was being slowed ripped away from millions of Americans, Trump’s first thought on most mornings was how much his supporters wanted to hear him slam black protesters, calling them “ungrateful” and “weak.”
The president has also implied that black men who take a stand against racial injustices facing their own communities, injustices that led to the deaths of 964 people in 2017 (66 of them unarmed) including a six-year-old boy, are scary thugs who bully their white owners into submission. It isn’t necessary for those team owners to listen and have productive conversations about the problem and work together to address the concerns, those white owners just need to threaten the livelihoods of their players and force them to adhere to white standards.
Speaking to Fox News, who praises the president at every opportunity for joining their quest to paint the protesters as disrespectful (i.e. uppity) and too frightening to control (i.e. thugs), Trump said in September that his white friends simply needed to discipline these grown, black men properly to keep them silent and submissive.
‘The comments suggesting that NFL owners — who are overwhelmingly white — are afraid of their players — the most prominent protesters are black — prompted accusations that Trump is continuing to stoke a controversy with strong racial undertones.‘”I have so many friends that are owners and they’re in a box,” Trump told Fox News. “I mean, I’ve spoken to a couple of them, and they say, ‘We are in a situation where we need to do something.’ I think they’re afraid of their players, if you want to know the truth, and I think it’s disgraceful.”‘
During the campaigns, Trump also raised eyebrows and let his almost exclusively white base know that he was on their side with ridiculous fawning over symbols of American patriotism while, just like his supporters, never acknowledging that the freedoms those symbols represent are also guaranteed to black Americans, although those freedoms have never been applied equally. In a display that had the more sane people in the country laughing at his absurdity, Trump even molested an American flag at one of his rallies, while his supporters cheered him on before clapping along to Trump’s calls for violence and hatred against protesters.
So when Trump attended the national championship college football game between Georgia and Alabama on Monday night, he showed off once again his love of the symbols of freedom in America while thumbing his nose at the issues that face the black Americans he was also elected to represent as president. Fox News and Donald Trump, Jr. made a giant display of Trump standing with U.S. military members to sing the national anthem before the game.
And that folks is how it’s done. It’s not that hard. Just show some respect for your country. #nodrama #maga #america #potus #georgia #alabama #football pic.twitter.com/x3I9AvZNXk
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2018
During the singing of the national anthem at the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Atlanta, @POTUS was spotted joining in. pic.twitter.com/ocCKmfq2nc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 9, 2018
As he garnered praise from those who share his lack of understanding or compassion for the issues black Americans face, Trump then embarrassed himself along with the entire country, a daily occurrence during the Trump presidency, by clearly not knowing the actual words to the anthem he so vocally supports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyrfbQ6Tkdw
Perhaps Trump should call Colin Kaepernick, who could teach him the words to that song.
Featured image screengrab via YouTube