President Donald Trump said on June 24 that he thought it was not appropriate for U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe to protest during the national anthem.
After the U.S. soccer implemented a rule that required players to “stand and honor the flag,” Rapinoe then told Yahoo News that she would not put her hand over her heart or sing the national anthem.
“No. I don’t think so,” Trump responded.
Trump, however, did offer praise to the women’s soccer team after their win over Spain, advancing to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
Rapinoe’s Protest
Although Rapinoe had accepted U.S. soccer rule and no longer kneels, she told Yahoo Sports in May that she was not happy with the decision.“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,” she told the news website.
“I’ll probably never put my hand over my heart. I’ll probably never sing the national anthem again,” she also said during the interview.She said the reason she is doing this was that “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 [expletive] you to any sort of inequality or bad sentiments that the [Trump] administration might have toward people who don’t look exactly like him. Which, God help us if we all looked like him. Scary. Really scary. Ahh, disturbing.”
“First, the national anthem has nothing to do with President Donald Trump or any other individual president. Therefore, Rapinoe’s desire to spite the president isn’t a logical reason to refrain from reciting the anthem or putting her hand on her heart,” Hakim wrote in his op-ed.
