Portland Soccer Fans Booed Donald Trump During Military Ceremony At Halftime
Portland soccer fans apparently aren’t too keen on Donald Trump — or even references to him, for that matter.
The United States Armed Forced held a swearing-in ceremony at a women’s professional soccer game between the Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage, and the fans in attendance let their feelings about Donald Trump be known during the part where service members pledge to obey the orders of President Donald Trump. As OregonLive.com reported, many in the crowd of 17,517 began to boo at the reference to Donald Trump, which is part of the U.S. military’s Oath of Enlistment.
As the report noted, Major League Soccer has hosted enlistment events at some of its military appreciation nights, and the smaller National Women’s Soccer League has picked up the trend as well. While the newly-enlisted military members elicited cheers from the crowd at this week’s game in Portland at the completion of the ceremony, the mention of Donald Trump garnered a much different reaction.
As the OregonLive.com report noted, the jeers from the crowd at the mention of Donald Trump took place amid the controversial decision from the MLS to ban all political signs, which has also been adopted by the NWSL. The report added that some fans believed that the military enlistment ceremony, and its inherent reference to Donald Trump, seemed to be a violation of the league’s own policy.
“Some fans said on social media Wednesday night that a military swearing-in event was inherently political and criticized the Timbers and Thorns organization for hosting the ceremony when the MLS Fan Code of Conduct still bans political signage at games,” the report noted.
Donald Trump has had a contentious relationship with athletes and sports fans throughout his presidency, famously taking aim at NFL players who took a knee in protest during the national anthem and calling it an attack on the U.S. military. The players are protesting police brutality against minorities, and many have pushed back against Trump’s calls for them to be fired for the protest. As The Inquisitr reported, there were widespread protests back in September 2017 following Trump’s call for NFL owners to fire the protesting players.
Trump has also gotten into some very high-profile spats with athletes, including responding to a criticism from Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry by publicly dis-inviting the team from its White House visit. He has also attacked the intelligence of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James after James offered a criticism of the president.
