WNBA player Sue Bird has written a biting op-ed aimed at Trump.
Last Wednesday, the president responded to US Women's Soccer star Megan Rapinoe who said she won't visit the White House if the team wins the Women's World Cup.
On Tuesday, Bird, who is in a relationship with Rapinoe, published a piece in The Players Tribune entitled, “So the President F*cking Hates My Girlfriend,” and explained why she felt compelled to write the story.
“I remember telling my editor here something like, ‘It would take the President of the United States going on a hate-filled Twitter spree trolling my girlfriend while she was putting American soccer, women’s sports, equal pay, gay pride and TRUE LOVE on her back, all at once, scoring two majestic goals to lead Team USA to a thrilling victory over France and a place in the World Cup SEMIFINALS, for me to ever even think about writing again,’” she wrote.
She presented some pretty unsurprising facts about Trump’s relationship to women’s sports teams, namely that, “Donald Trump has never invited a WNBA champion to the White House.”
She further supported the claim that Trump's racist by pointing out that in 2017, he didn't initially invite the South Carolina Women's Basketball team to the White House when they won the national championship because the team has a black coach, Dawn Staley. However, in 2019, when Baylor Women's Basketball team won the national championship, they were extended an invitation. Baylor is coached by a white woman, Kim Mulkey.
On June 25, days before the U.S. Women’s Soccer team defeated France in a World Cup quarterfinal, a video surfaced of Rapinoe, the team’s winger and co-captain, telling Eight by Eight, “I’m not going to the fucking White House. No. I’m not going to the White House. We’re not going to be invited. I doubt it.”
The following day, Trump, of course, took offense to the comment and went on a Twitter rant, writing, among other things, that “Megan should never disrespect our Country, the White House, or our Flag.” He also invited the team to the White House, “win or lose.”
On June 27, Rapinoe told the New York Post she “stand[s] by the comments that I made about not wanting to go to the White House,” adding, “I would encourage my teammates to think hard about lending [their] platform or having that co-opted by an administration that doesn’t feel the same way and doesn’t fight for same things that we fight for.”
On Friday, Rapinoe scored two goals in the quarterfinal game against France, helping her team move to a semifinal against England on Tuesday.
