"Trump Confined to Fantasy Football With White Players": Support For Professional Athletes' Anthem Protests Is Now Solidly Mainstream, Poll Indicates
September 10, 2020
Eric Trump, who tweeted “Football is officially dead — so much for ‘America’s sport.’ Goodbye NFL . . . I’m gone” over Dallas Cowboys management green-lighting protests (Gage Skidmore)
By Laura Clawson
Donald Trump is increasingly out of step with America when it comes to racial justice protests by professional athletes. Four years after Colin Kaepernick started kneeling, Trump is still attacking athletes who dare speak out or kneel, while public opinion has shifted dramatically.
A new Washington Post poll finds that 56% of Americans say kneeling is an appropriate way for athletes to protest racial inequality, and 62% say athletes should use their platforms to express their views on national issues. That’s a real shift—in 2018, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found just 43% of people supported kneeling. This July, NBC News/Wall Street Journal found 52% support.
The White House hasn't gotten the memo. “President Trump stands with our brave soldiers and patriots who proudly stand for our national anthem and great flag, not those who choose to disrespect it by kneeling or elect to needlessly cover this demonstration—and the American people agree with him,” White House spokesman Judd Deere claimed just before the new poll came out (but after the July one).
Eric Trump, not usually the Trump son most out in front making inflammatory statements, tweeted “Football is officially dead — so much for ‘America’s sport.’ Goodbye NFL . . . I’m gone” over Dallas Cowboys management green-lighting protests.
It’s true that the people who oppose athletes speaking out or kneeling do look like the Trump base—only 43% of Republicans and 45% of people 65 and older support the right of athletes to use their platform to express their views. But if you want evidence that things are quickly shifting away from Trump’s view, consider this: even 52% of white people say that kneeling is an appropriate form of protest.
Meanwhile, people are hungry for televised sports as a distraction during a pandemic that has slowed the release of new movies and TV shows, and Trump is out there saying he doesn’t want the NFL season to start if players are going to be kneeling.
Posted with permission