Donald Trump's meeting with Clemson football players was newsworthy, but not in the way that most of Trump's attempted fetes for sports champions have been.
While Trump has repeatedly made headlines when players refused to visit the White House, particularly in the NFL where Trump has made a point of inserting himself into the debate, the most recent party made waves for its menu of quickly congealing fast food rather than who decided not to attend. But fear not, the kids have the same spirit as their pro counterparts. The majority of Clemson's African-American players opted not to show up.
According to The Root, only 15 of the team's black players opted to attend the White House function. There are 57 black players on the roster for the national champions. Players who didn't go noted that the ones who showed up at Trump's shutdown photo-op were mostly bit players and young members of the team who had yet to see much of the field.
"Not saying anything against the players who went, but if you look at who went — freshman and people fighting for playing time — you’ll see what I’m talking about,” an unnamed player told The Root.
Another anonymous source said that everyone was free to make their own decisions, with the majority of black players deciding that the trip wasn't something they wanted to take part in.
“It wasn’t like we had a team meeting or anything,” he said. “Players were talking amongst each other but everybody was like: ‘I’m not going to that.’ ”
It's easy to see why players would want to pass, especially since those that did attend were used as right-wing meme fodder complete with fabricated quotes.
