President Trump spoke of the ‘big improvement’ at last night’s Super Bowl after no NFL players took a knee during the singing of the national anthem.
‘We are one team, one people and one family and we are saluting one great American flag, and everybody stood up yesterday,’ the president marveled as he spoke to workers in Ohio Monday. ‘There was nobody kneeling at the beginning of the Super Bowl.’
Several hours before the big game on Sunday, the president had sent out a ‘presidential message’ to the nation, alluding to the NFL’s national anthem kneeling controversy yet again.
During a speech on tax reform in Ohio Monday, President Trump marveled that all the NFL athletes playing in the Super Bowl stood during the national anthem, as the president had advised
President Trump waves to supporters as he leaves his golf club for Mar-a-Lago Sunday several hours before the big game. Trump also released a statement about the Super Bowl where he talked about the necessity of people standing during the national anthem
Trump, for months, has railed against players modeling their behavior after ex-NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who would take a knee during the national anthem throughout 2016 as a way to protest racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.
In his three paragraph long message, the president talked about the troops noting how many members of the armed forces ‘are unable to be home with family and friends to enjoy this evening’s American tradition.’
The president has equated standing for the Star Spangled Banner with paying respects to the armed forces, thus pitting swaths of his white supporters squarely against the protesters, many of whom are black.
In September, at the height of Trump’s war with the NFL, the president said, ‘The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race.’
‘It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!’ he said.
On Sunday, he more subtly waded into the debate.
‘We hold them in our hearts and thank them for our freedom as we proudly stand for that National Anthem,’ the president said of the troops.
When the time came for the anthem, bellowed by pop star Pink, every member of the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles stayed on their feet.
‘We’ve made a lot of improvements haven’t we?’ Trump commented Monday. ‘And on top of that it was a good game. A lot of good things happened, but there was no kneeling before that Super Bowl,’ he said again.
At Tuesday night’s State of the Union debate, the president referred to the controversy as he applauded the work of 12-year-old Preston Sharp, one of his guests, whose Flag and Flower challenge inspired Americans to decorate veterans’ graves.
‘Preston’s reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem,’ Trump said.
It was in September, however, that Trump really put the issue front and center.
Visiting Alabama to support Republican Sen. Luther Strange, the appointed replacement of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who was running in the special election, the president mused to the crowd, ‘you know what’s hurting the game?’
‘When people like yourselves turn on the television, and you see those people taking the knee when they are playing out great national anthem,’ Trump continued, drawing a distinction between the mostly white audience and the predominantly black football-playing protesters.
Over the course of the speech, Trump advised that fans start boycotting the game.
‘Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a b**** off the field right now. Out He’s fired. He’s fired,”‘ Trump went on.
Over the next few weeks, Trump continued warring with the NFL, tweeting things like, ‘If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!’ Trump wrote.
‘NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country. League should back U.S.,’ the president said.
Vice President Mike Pence also gave Trump dramatic backing.
Pence, the former governor of Indiana, visited an Indianapolis Colts game on October 8 and when some players on the field took the knee, he walked out.
‘I left today’s Colts game because President Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem,’ Pence said in a statement that the White House quickly pushed out to reporters.
Soon after Pence exited the game, Trump took credit for it being his idea.
‘I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen,’ Trump wrote on Twitter.
While the president has vocally criticized the players’ protest movement, he didn’t skip watching the Super Bowl Monday night.
The president watched the dramatic football game from his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, concluding his weekend stay at nearby Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
‘Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on a great Super Bowl victory!’ he tweeted in its aftermath.
The Eagles’ win robs the president from entertaining the New England Patriots at the White House yet again, as he hosted the 2017 Super Bowl winners in the South Lawn last April.
‘You pulled off the greatest Super Bowl comeback of all time,’ he said then.
At last night’s game, New England’s Quarterback Tom Brady – who didn’t attend last year’s White House event – made one final pitch into the endzone that, if completed and coupled with a two-pointer before the buzzer, could have taken the Patriots into overtime.
However, the ball was batted away, with the Eagles winning the game 41 to 33.