As a presidential candidate and occupying the White House in 2016, Donald Trump castigated the NFL players to kneel during the national anthem to protest against violations of civil rights. Now ready to become the first outgoing president to attend a Super Bowl, it seems that the most popular sport in the United States is achieved in front of him.
Trump would attend the confrontation between the Chiefs of Kansas City and the Eagles of Philadelphia on Sunday in New Orleans as guest of Gayle Benson, owner of the Holy Orleans. A pre-recorded interview carried out by a Fox News presenter will also be broadcast during the pre-match show of an event that last year was consulted by Over 123 million Americans. And although he looks at the action, Trump will not have to look at a message inspired by the type of diversity, equity and inclusion (dei) that he intends to Bulldozer.
The real estate tycoon is back in the White House for the first time in four years and for the first time in a Super Bowl since 2021, the message “End Racism” will not be in the field in one end zones. End Raconm is a slogan that the NFL began to promote after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was assassinated by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. The sentence is part of Inspire Change, an initiative of justice Community social launched in the awakening of the activism of the old quarter Colin Kaepernick against racism and police brutality.
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Trump, however, sought to use the demonstrations to raise his base during his first mandate, urging team owners to shoot players who kneel during the anthem and encourage fans to go out. That fired a response Of the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, who said that “division comments like these demonstrate an unhappy disrespect for the NFL”.
Goodell told journalists on Monday that the League would continue its “diversity efforts” and an NFL spokesperson said to athletics This “choice of love” and “it takes all of us” will be written in the end zones as an appropriate response to the recent terrorist attack in the French district of New Orleans, the Washington air collision and fires from Los Angeles forest.
However, the change of slogan and the planned presence of the president in the Superdome Césars are visible at a time when American sports seem to follow the sector of companies in the adoption of policies of appeasement or silence towards Trump, who signed some decrees intended to intend to Eliminate the initiatives of In the federal government and pressurizing private entities to stifle their programs. For his supporters, it is a salvo in the “war against Woke”. To its detractors Tactics are a characteristic of a racist program.
“President Trump loves a victory tour and it is certainly a victory tour on the NFL,” explains Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of politics at the University of Houston and co -director of the Presidential project investigation.
The “Trump Dance” became a viral celebration in the NFL after the elections of last November, while Wednesday the biggest stars of the Chiefs, the quarter-Arrière Patrick Mahomes and the tight Bout Travis Kelce, Both said it would be “cool” To play in front of Trump. Kelce added that it will be “brilliant” and “a great honor … No matter who the president is, I know that I am excited”. His enthusiasm raised his eyebrows because he is in a relationship with Taylor Swift. The pop star approved Kamala Harris in the elections and Trump replied by declaring “I hate Taylor Swift” on social networks.
Basketball star LeBron James, who called Trump a “tramp” In 2017 and supported Harris last year, was among the high -level athletes who have been silent who have been silent so far during Trump’s second term. Of course, the administration is less than a month old. But Trump was occupied, issuing a wave of guidelines on cultural war issues and inviting Elon Musk to eradicate large parts of the federal government. And Trump explicitly uses sport as a political tool, perhaps even more blatant than during his first mandate.
At halftime of the national championship of the play football playoffs on January 20 – Trump’s inauguration day – ESPN, the first American sports network, broadcast a video message From Trump, it was equivalent to a political program in which he said that the Americans had “suffered a lot” from the Biden administration. ESPN said the game On average 22 million viewersThis makes it the most watched non-NFL sporting event of the past year.
After campaigning on a commitment to “keep men outside female sports” on Wednesday, surrounded by young female athletes, Trump signed a decree Prohibit transgender athletes To participate in female sports, the last of a series of gender guidelines. The NCAA, the Corps Director of American University Sports, fell online The next day with what its president, Charlie Baker, described as Trump’s “national standard”.
Although the attendance of the super bowl of an exercise president is a novelty, the American commanders have a long tradition of assistance to baseball matches: William Taft launched the First Pas de Ceremony The day of opening in Washington in 1910. George W Bush, a former part of the Texas Rangers, famous mound Before a 2001 World Series match at Yankee Stadium following the September 11 attacks. Trump, however, is probably more interested in other sports, and not only because he was hooky And subjected to a song of “Lock Him Up” in 2019 while attending a Washington Nationals World Series match just three kilometers from the White House.
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The United States will host the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games and Trump, which has a hearty relationship With the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has a replica of the football trophy on prominent display in the oval office. “I plan to see the president very involved in pop culture and sports worlds, it’s an easy way for him to connect to people,” explains Rottinghaus.
Barack Obama attended matches and completed an annual university basketball prediction support, but his relationship with sports seemed more motivated by the passionate fandom than political calculation. Trump sees sport as a vehicle with a value that goes far beyond photo opportunities with celebrities.
“The infusion of sports culture and politics is a means that Donald Trump can demonstrate victories,” adds Rottinghaus. “It is one thing to eliminate Dei in government agencies that most people have never heard of, it is another to change the way they send their product. It is a different type of victory that is really the kind of thing that his supporters want. »»
Trump’s fractive relationship with the NFL prior to the controversy of the hymn. Long owner of the frustrated grass team, he made a failed attempt to buy Buffalo invoices in 2014 in what turned into a fierce rivalry with an offer Mercé by Jon Bon Jovi. And as the owner of the New Jersey Generals, a team from the disappearance of the United States football league, he led a Unhappy anti-trusted trial Against the NFL in 1986 in order to force a merger. But he was celebrated by fans During a visit to a Pittsburgh Steelers match last October, while during his previous quarter as president, he appointed co-owner the New York Jets, Woody Johnson, as an ambassador to the United Kingdom.
The Republican Written Friday that it will be a great game !!! “However, the state of relative calm between Trump and the NFL could be subject to musical entertainment and if the chiefs win their third successive title. The part-time show is generally not openly political, but this year, it is titled by rapper Kendrick Lamar, whose track 2015 was good adopted By Black Lives Matter Dismatfs. In 2017, he struck: “Donald Trump is a chump”.
Trump, on the other hand, praised the Chiefs on social networks after their victory of the AFC championship over the Bills a fortnight ago: “Congratulations to the Chiefs of Kansas City. What a big team, coach, quarter-back and almost everything else, including these fantastic fans, who voted for me (Maga!) In record number. »»
He also praised the invoices. But there was no mention of the Eagles who beat Washington commanders earlier during the day. Philadelphia won the Super Bowl in 2018. This year Almost none of the players or staff were ready to attend following his division conduct. Last year, Trump described the highly democratic city as a dyme damble in crime. Another victory for Philadelphia could rekindle hostilities and explode which seems to be a difficult truce – or offer more evidence than the sports climate has gone from resistance to acceptance.
