https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912080538755846144
Week 3 of the NFL season moves forward in earnest while players across the league join Colin Kaepernick’s lead in protesting racial injustices. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is tweeting through it all, calling for the NFL to punish players that peacefully protest by kneeling during the national anthem. He even spouted his campaign catch-phrase, so you know he means business.
Courageous Patriots have fought and died for our great American Flag — we MUST honor and respect it! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2017
As the day went on, Trump retweeted a call to boycott the NFL as a Political Action Committee that was started by Trump campaign operatives began targeting ads towards his supporters, asking them to watch something patriotic instead of football on Sundays.
https://twitter.com/DonnaWR8/status/912020084176146432
During the day, Trump told a Bloomberg reporter that his tweets seemingly don’t apply to his buddy and Patriots owner Bob Kraft.
Trump told us "that's ok" that his friend Bob Kraft disagrees with him on NFL players kneeling. "I want him to do what he wants to do."
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 24, 2017
Finally, in a “life imitating memes” type of situation, Trump once again reinforced the “there’s a tweet for everything” viral meme by going back on his words from two days after his inauguration.
Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2017
Today was a rare showing of unity across the NFL, and a lot of that could be credited to Trump, who, at a rally, said that NFL owners should fire protesters with the phrase: “get that son of a bitch off the field.” Today’s constant barrage of tweets, combated by the protests, seems like its both divided America further and yet, brought many together.
