The former president took aim at the US women’s football team as they finished with bronze medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Donald Trump has said the US women’s football team might have won gold medals instead of bronze if they weren’t “woke”.
Releasing an official statement on the team’s performance, Mr. Trump said the team should “replace the wokesters with patriots”.
“If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of leftist maniacs, wasn’t woke, they would have won the gold medal instead of the bronze,” a statement from his office said.
“Woke means you lose, everything that is woke goes bad, and our soccer team certainly has.”
“There were, however, a few patriots standing,” he said, referring to other players taking the knee during the national anthem.
“Unfortunately, they need more than that respecting our country and national anthem. They should replace the wokesters with patriots and start winning again.”
Referring to Megan Rapinoe as the “woman with the purple hair”, Trump said she “played terribly” despite scoring twice, and “spends too much time thinking about radical Left politics and not doing her job.”
The US women’s team took third place in the Olympics after beating Australia 4-3 yesterday.
Rapinoe, who calls herself a “walking protest” to Trump’s policies, had previously clashed with the former president during his time in power, telling reporters in 2019 that “I’m not going to the f****** White House” after winning the women’s World Cup.
Following their loss to Sweden at this year’s Olympics, Trump told a Phoenix rally that “wokeism makes you lose.”
“The U.S. women’s soccer team is a very good example of what’s going on,” he claimed.
Other conservative commentators in the US joined the chorus of right-wing opposition to the women’s team during the Olympic Games:
The US Women’s Soccer team just lost to Canada and many enjoyed the loss. In 2015 the US women were one of the most popular teams in American history. What happened? Woke sports destroys everything it touches.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 2, 2021
https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1417829827923562498
Not heartbreaking at all. @mPinoe is an anti-American piece of trash who does not represent our country, anywhere, ever.
Any person who disrespects the the flag that sons and daughters are sent home beneath while fighting for our freedoms overseas, deserves to lose.
Repeatedly. https://t.co/uSIrSLdnzt— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 3, 2021