Donald Trump celebrates USWNT World Cup victory on Twitter
There was no grand statement, no updated invite to the White House and no real animosity of any kind. Just a short tweet congratulating the World Cup champions from the President of the United States.
Congratulations to the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team on winning the World Cup! Great and exciting play. America is proud of you all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2019
While all championship-winning teams have to grapple with whether or not to play nice with Donald Trump and his administration, the USWNT, behind star Megan Rapinoe, made their position clear long before winning the World Cup. In turn, it started a back-and-forth with the Commander-in-Chief.
“I’m not going to the f---ing White House,” Rapinoe said in a months-old video that became a hot topic during the tournament. “No, I’m not going to the White House. We’re not going to be invited. I doubt it.”
That certainly got Trump’s attention and brought another wave of questions to a USWNT team on the verge of a historic run.
Trump went on another of his Twitter rants in which he invited the team to the White House win or lose and called out Rapinoe for “disrespecting” her country. Rapinoe, meanwhile, stood her ground on her sport’s biggest stage.
Whether or not the USWNT sees Trump’s tweet or responds to it, they’ve made their position on the matter clear.
“Hopefully [we are] using [that platform] for good and leaving the game in a better place and hopefully the world in a better place,” Rapinoe previously said. “I don’t think I would want to go. And I would encourage my teammates to think hard about lending that platform or having it co-opted by an administration that does not feel the same way and fight for the same things that we fight for.”
– – – – – –
Blake Schuster is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
More from Yahoo Sports:
