Donald Trump wants to create jobs for all Americans except one NFL quarterback.
Trump spoke with glee about a report that his potential Twitter rants might be keeping NFL teams from signing Colin Kaepernick, who’s currently a free agent. Kaepernick — who took a knee during the national anthem this season in a silent protest to bring attention to police brutality against people of color — drew the ire of the “least racist person that you have ever met” at a rally held in Kentucky on Monday night.
#POTUS #DonaldTrump said " @NFL teams refusing to pick up .@Kaepernick7 b/c of #Trump ." #NFL @JohnLeguizamo @PRIMO1MX @kingsfanone #49ers pic.twitter.com/xyTEva194t
— 🎬 ⭐️ 📽 (@HollywoodBlvd1) March 21, 2017
“And you know, your San Francisco quarterback … I’m sure nobody ever heard of him,” Trump says of Kaepernick, shaking his head as the crowd begins to boo.
“I’m just reporting the news,” he continued. “There was an article today — I love to report the news and then they said I made a mistake. I said ‘no, the people reporting the news made a mistake if it’s wrong.’
From there, Trump decided to go in on Kaepernick’s lack of a job in mid-March, referencing his own impact on the former San Francisco 49ers’ signal caller’s inability to find a team.
“There was an article today reporting that NFL owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump,” he said. “Do you believe that?”
Amazingly, Donald, I do believe that. That seems like exactly the kind of thing an anonymous NFL general manager would say. Some — including Spike Lee — think it’s ridiculous that Kaep can’t find a team, especially after he’s reportedly done with the protest. But Trump seemed very proud that he could be keeping Kapernick out of the NFL this season.
“I just saw that. I said if I remember that one I’m going to report it to the people of Kentucky,” Trump said of a state that hasn’t had an NFL team since 1926. “Because they like it when people actually stand for the American flag, right?
The article Trump appears to reference was a Mike Freeman piece published Friday on Bleacher Report that said, while many believe Kaep can play at a high level, there are concerns about the controversy he’s created over the last month. Namely, that fans would be upset or a Twitter rant from Trump about the news would create a stir that isn’t worth what may amount to signing a backup quarterback.
It’s bizarre that this kind of thing is even mentioned at a rally for what should be support for his Affordable Care Act replacement, but that’s the kind of thing Trump did all throughout his presidential campaign. With the presidency now his, he’s struggled to avoid talking about anything tangentially related to him.
For what it’s worth, Kaepernick doesn’t seem too worried about finding a team to play for this fall. He’s currently helping to raise $2 million for food and water to help impoverished people living in Somalia.
(Via For The Win)
