Trump Asked 'What Was Nike Thinking?' And Got Savaged In Reply
President Donald Trump faced an online backlash Friday morning after he posed this question about Nike:
What was Nike thinking?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2018
“What was Nike thinking?” asked Trump, apparently doubling down on his criticism of the sports brand for making former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of its 30th anniversary celebration of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign.
Kaepernick began taking a knee during the national anthem before NFL games in 2016 to protest systemic racial injustice and police brutality. Trump has been heavily critical of the protest.
In a “Fox & Friends” interview recorded Thursday at Trump’s political rally in Montana and shown Friday morning, Trump said he didn’t like “what Nike did.”
“I don’t think it’s appropriate what they did,” he said. “I honor the flag. I honor our national anthem, and most of the people in this country feel the same way.”
EXCLUSIVE: @POTUS shares his message with @PeteHegseth ahead of his rally in Montana pic.twitter.com/wKXbJloWWH
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) September 7, 2018
Trump’s Twitter question inspired many people to suggest why Nike had recruited Kaepernick for the campaign. And, inevitably, many took the opportunity to offer their thoughts about Trump:
They were thinking that racism and racial injustice has no place in the USA. #JustDoIt @Nike
— Heidi Z 🌊🐓🌊 (@HeidiZarecky) September 7, 2018
They were certainly thinking of something more inspirational than you could imagine.
— Mark Goldberg 🥑⚖️ (@MarkGoldberg13) September 7, 2018
The opposite of racism
— Travon Free (@Travon) September 7, 2018
What Nike is thinking is none of your big fat government business.
In America Nike can freely think what they want to and without a tin horn dictator bullying their customers.— Nancy Estes (@AmBeachy) September 7, 2018
They were thinking that they wanted to be on the right side of history, unlike you.
— F. Andy Seidl (@faseidl) September 7, 2018
What was America thinking?
— Seano [-0-] (@SeanBradbery) September 7, 2018
They were thinking that your diseased racist world view is going to be considered unacceptable in polite society very soon now.
— Julius Goat (Read Pinned Tweet!) (@JuliusGoat) September 7, 2018
They were thinking, period. You should try it sometime.
— cpinkberry (@cpinkberry) September 7, 2018
What were you thinking when you called neo-nazis “very fine people”?
— Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) September 7, 2018
They were thinking that injustice is wrong and free speech matters. You should think this way too!
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) September 7, 2018
They was thinking for justice NOT injustice, 🤡President
— KSD (@KSD371) September 7, 2018
That you’re a racist 🤷🏼♂️
— UnsilentMajority 🌹 (@The_UnSilent_) September 7, 2018
That Racial injustice is something America should be concerned about.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) September 7, 2018
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
