On Friday and Saturday, he called on the NFL to fire players who protest during the national anthem. On Monday, after Trump’s comments led more players to protest during Sunday’s games, he tweeted “#StandForOurAnthem” and retweeted someone who called for a boycott against the NFL.
Trump seems to be under the impression that these protests are disrespectful to the entire country. In his initial tweet, he said that NFL players “should not be allowed to disrespect … our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem.” His later retweet also suggested that not standing for the national anthem is an affront to military veterans.
This misses the point of the protests entirely. These demonstrations are not about disrespecting the flag or the nation. They are not about disrespecting the military, especially given that some military veterans have participated in and supported the protests ever since Colin Kaepernick jump-started them.
This is about systemic racism in America — and particularly police brutality. As Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett put it in a recent letter, there’s a widespread belief that in America, a person’s race can get him killed at the hands of police. Bennett claimed to experience this exact same thing in a recent police stop in Las Vegas, noting that he thought, “I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat.”
Trump has joked about police brutality, has criticized Black Lives Matter, and supports “tough on crime,” aggressive policing. So it’s not surprising that he’s trying to spin the NFL demonstrations in the least charitable way possible — and make it seem like these football players are unpatriotic.
But the fact that the president is giving these protests attention shows that, to some degree, they’re working: The protests make some people uncomfortable, but they also bring attention to issues of police brutality and race that some NFL players feel have long been neglected.
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