On June 4th, Trump cancelled the event where the Philadelphia Eagles (who I am told won the Super Bowl, I didn't watch) were scheduled to meet with Trump in the White House the next day. CNN even says so: Trump cancels Philadelphia Eagles visit to the White House.
Here are a couple of Torrey Smith's Tweets about the cancellation:
So many lies smh Here are some facts 1. Not many people were going to go 2. No one refused to go simply because Trump 'insists' folks stand for the anthem 3. The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are anti military,
There are a lot of people on the team that have plenty of different views. The men and women that wanted to go should've been able to go. It's a cowardly act to cancel the celebration because the majority of the people don't want to see you. To make it about the anthem is foolish.
Let me say up front that not one Eagle took a knee for the Anthem during the regular season. I also want to make clear I agree with Mr. Smith in that I believe a majority of NFL players are not anti-military. It has been a small minority of players who are kneeling and I will give those kneelers the benefit of the doubt that they are not anti-military.
What the CNN article doesn't say is in the security arrangements to visit the White House, everyone planning to attend an event like this has to submit an application with their name and other information for a security check. Eighty people submitted their applications to attend the White House event. Why is this important? You have an invitation to be part of a delegation to meet the President. You have to go through the effort to submit paperwork. I can understand, say, five people out of eighty might have to cancel at the last minute. Sickness, injury, family emergency, whatever. Those are, in Project Manager terms, "known unknowns." When seventy of eighty people cancel, that's a hearty "FUCK YOU" and an attempt to embarrass Trump. The White House was planning for seventy plus people attending, not ten. The prospective publicity photo released to the press, which should have been 30+ people would have been five, including the mascot. Trump would have been skewered by the press even if he had gone ahead with the event.
Judo is an Asian Martial Art. "Ju-Do" actually means "The Gentile Way" and this art teaches how to use your opponents own weight, inertia and body against them. I specify this because this past Friday, Trump answered some question on the White House Lawn on his way to the G7 Summit. This is what he said:
I'm gonna ask all of those [NFL players] to recommend to me ... people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system and I'm gonna ask them to recommend to me, people that were unfairly treated, friends of theirs or people that they know about and I'm gonna take a look at those applications.
So why is this a brilliant Judo move? Trump directly addressed the main point that the NFL players were kneeling for, namely "social injustice," then said, "I will look at pardoning anyone you say has suffered "social injustice."
This puts the NFL players in an untenable position.
- They are going to have to submit some names, or Trump wins outright because by submitting zero names, the players admit by omission that there is no "social injustice."
- Whatever names they submit will be examined to almost the minutest detail. They would have to submit people like Alice Marie Johnson, whom Kim Kardashian advocated for at the White House and won her freedom. This means they can't submit names of those who have multiple violent convictions, deep gang ties, etc. Well, they can, but then the NFL players would look like fools.
- Trump is under no obligation to pardon or commute the sentience of anybody.
- If the NFL players do submit names and they are released, they will be in Trump's debt and will be forced to say nice things about him. They may follow up with sarcastic comments in the next breath, but that will only expose the players' hypocrisy and hurt their credibility, not Trump's.
I don't see Trump coming out on the bad side of any of these possibilities, even with a hostile press. I may have to start addressing Trump as "Mr. Miyagi." Start watching at 55 seconds.
Well played Mr. Trump. Well played.