President Donald Trump hasn’t responded to the comments made by San Antonio Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich, but he did have something to say about the Dallas Cowboys dropping to one knee before the National Anthem this week.
“Ratings for NFL football are way down except before game starts when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected,” tweeted Trump. “The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was loudest I have ever heard. Great anger … But while Dallas dropped to its knees as a team, they all stood up for our National Anthem. Big progress being made. We all love our country.”
Some might say that Trump isn’t consistent when it comes to the people he responds to, and there’s a good chance that he won’t say anything about Popovich’s criticism — even though the legendary coach has blasted him many times before.
On Monday (Sept. 25) at the National Basketball Association’s media day, Popovich ripped the president and also spoke candidly on race.
Popovich on #Warriors White House visit being rescinded #Spurs #NBA pic.twitter.com/aY3KyV3uJL
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) September 25, 2017
“Our country is an embarrassment in the world,” he said. “This is an individual that when people held arms during games, [he thought] that they were doing it to honor the flag. That’s delusional. But it’s what we have to live with. You’ve got a choice: We can continue to bounce our heads off the walls with his conduct, or we can decide the institutions of our country are more important, people are more important. Get down to business at the grassroots level and do what we have to do.”
“Obviously, race is the elephant in the room, and we all understand that unless it is talked about constantly, it is not going to get better,” added Popovich. “People get bored, ‘Oh, is it that They are pulling the race card.’ Because it’s uncomfortable, there has to be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change. Whether it is LGBT, women’s suffrage, race, [it] doesn’t matter. People have to be made to feel uncomfortable; especially white people. We still have no clue what being born white means.”
Again, no response from Trump after the coaches’ strong words and he also had nothing to say when Miss Texas, Margana Wood, criticized him for stating there were “very fine people on both sides” of the Charlottesville protests.
“I think that the white supremacist issue, it was very obvious that it was a terrorist attack,” said Wood. “And I think that President Donald Trump should have made a statement earlier addressing the fact and making sure all Americans feel safe in this country. That is the No. 1 issue right now.”
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Plus, other celebrities have openly ripped the president, including George Clooney, comedian and talk show host Chelsea Handler, Robert De Niro and the list goes on.
And while Trump has shot back at some in entertainment — like he did with comedian Kathy Griffin by seemingly halting her career — some might say he’s quicker to respond when people of color criticize him. Take ESPN host Jemele Hill for example, who called him a white supremacist.
Unlike Wood, who blasted the president at the Miss America pageant, Trump asked Hill for an apology, just one day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the host’s comments were a “fireable offense.”
The current back-and-forth that Trump is having with the NFL comes shortly after he called players “sons of b—–” for following Colin Kapernick‘s lead by protesting the National Anthem before games — Again, seeming to show an inconsistency with who he chooses to respond to.
More than likely, as the NBA season progresses, Popovich will have more harsh words for Trump, as will players from various sports leagues and the team owners. Whether all of those people all get a ferocious response from the president remains to be seen.
