President Donald Trump extended an offer to the men and women of American sports leagues, asking for recommendations of people deserving a pardon. It is Trump’s latest response to the protests of league players, particularly in the National Football League.
Starting with then-NFL player Colin Kaepernick in 2016, some players went on to kneel in protest while the national anthem was playing before games. An oft-cited argument for the protests was that people from minority groups are mistreated by the justice system.
Trump previously criticized the players for choosing a form of protest that’s disrespectful to the country. He even suggested that the players should be fired.
Trump addressed the issue again when talking to reporters on June 8, before leaving for the G7 summit in Canada.
“You have a lot of people in the NFL in particular, but in sports leagues—they’re not proud enough to stand for our national anthem. I don’t like that,” he said, later adding, “You should stand for our national anthem. You shouldn’t go in a locker room when our national anthem is played.”
Trump said he would ask those who protested to name people they believe have been mistreated by the justice system and should be pardoned. “I understand that. And I’m going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated—friends of theirs, or people that they know about—and I’m going to take a look at those applications, and if I find, and my committee finds, that they’re unfairly treated, then we will pardon them or at least let them out,” he said.
Trump’s move of putting critics in charge of the solution recalls his methods of handling environmental opposition to his golf courses, according to environmentalist Ed Russo.
Russo was the head of a local committee that tried to prevent Trump from building a golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Russo’s tactic, one he used on other developers before, was to impose environmental standards so high they would be impossible to meet, thus scuttling the project.
“I think that’s good,” Trump said about the change. “I don’t think people should be staying in locker rooms, but still, I think it’s good.”
NFL ratings dropped by about 10 percent last year—worse than the 8 percent drop the year before, Sports Illustrated reported.
Trump said he didn’t believe he was the major force behind the NFL policy change.
“I think the people pushed it forward. This was not me. I brought it out. I think the people pushed it forward,” he said.
The league decided to address the players’ concerns by creating a program to help the communities that the players feel are in need. Whatever the players donate, the clubs match. Together, they will decide how to use the money. ESPN reported last month that so far the funds had amounted to $89 million.
