President Donald Trump has been vocal in his opposition to NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, and now he’s pulling the Chicago Blackhawks into the fray.
On Saturday night, the president sent out a tweet featuring the Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues standing for the national anthem before a game at Scottrade Center. With the crowd at the arena singing along to the song, President Trump tweeted out a video with the caption “19,000 RESPECTING our National Anthem!”:
The video, taken in Nov. 2016, got over 20,000 retweets after it was posted.
President Trump has been criticizing NFL players for the last week over their decision to kneel during the anthem as a way of protesting injustice and misdeeds by police. He originally mentioned his disdain for the practice at a rally in Alabama, and has since doubled down multiple times on social media and in press availabilities.
The decision to post the video begs the question of whether or not the president will post about the Blackhawks’ national anthem tradition of fans cheering loudly throughout the song. The team has its home opener on Oct. 5, so it will be interesting to see if the president uses the opportunity to discuss the anthem and protests further.
