Trump’s fight with football players dominates agenda
President’s tweets may be tactic to distract in hard times
It’s an awfully busy week for President Trump, and an awfully distracted one.
His hopes of repealing Obamacare hang in the balance. He’s seeking momentum for a major tax overhaul. He’s staked political capital on a primary race in Alabama. He’s locked in a nuclear-tinged war of words with North Korea ... and his team is trying to help hurricane-hit Puerto Rico cope with a lack of electricity.
So what’s Trump talking about at the start of this critical week?
The National Football League and player protests.
“The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race,” Trump tweeted Monday, the fourth straight day he has weighed in on the subject. “It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!”
In some ways, the president’s attacks on football players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racism — and football players’ attacks on Trump for threatening free speech — are overwhelming his message on health care, taxes, North Korea, and all the rest.
In another way: That may be the plan, because many of those other issues aren’t going so well.
“Trump will always change the subject if there’s something bad going on,” said Republican strategist Rich Galen.
Others said it’s just Trump being Trump, popping off at what catches his eye, just as he did Friday night unloading on some NFL players during a political rally in Alabama (and describing protesters as SOBs).
“I think it’s classic Trump, listening to his gut and letting it rip,” said Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to Republican President George W. Bush.
One thing is for sure: Trump and football players are getting a stadium full of attention at a pivotal time for an administration facing low approval ratings, divisions among Republicans, and global tension over North Korea.
In the Senate, Republicans are struggling to round up votes for a plan to repeal and replace President Obama’s health care law.
Success or failure in health care could dictate the fate of Trump’s hopes for tax reform. He in the midst of a national tour of political battleground states to promote a package to reduce the corporate tax rate and simplify the tax code. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to visit Indiana.
The pro football issue flared less than a week after Trump went to the United Nations to confront North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Calling Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man,” Trump said the North Korean leader is risking “suicide” if it attacks the USA or its allies in Asia.
On Monday in New York, North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said his country regards Trump’s comments as a declaration of war.
Also hovering over the administration: An ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible links be- tween Trump’s team and Russians who sought to influence last year’s presidential election, and whether the president sought to obstruct justice by firing James Comey as FBI director.
Trump faces a big political test on Tuesday, in a primary in a hotbed of college football: Alabama.
The president backs Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to the seat after Trump named Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Strange is opposed Roy Moore, who is backed by Trump-ites including Sarah Palin and former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon.
Polls give Moore an edge, and a Strange loss would deal Trump a defeat.
In his remarks at the rally, Trump said he was taking a “big risk” with his endorsement of Strange “because if Luther doesn’t make it they’re going to go after me” and argue he has no political strength.
“If Luther doesn’t win, they’re not going to say we picked up 25 points in a very short period of time. They’re going to say Donald Trump, the president of the United States, was unable to pull his candidate across the line.”
Yet Trump’s support for Strange on Friday night in Huntsville were not what generated the headlines from the rally. Instead, there was one epic line: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that (expletive) off the field right now? Out! He’s fired! he’s fired!” Trump said to cheers.
The sports question dominated the White House press briefing on Monday. Pressed about whether Trump went too far spokeswoman Sarah Sanders repeatedly deflected, insisting it was “always appropriate” for the president of the United States to defend the American flag and national anthem.
Some analysts see Trump as simply whipping up his base.
“He is more shock jock than president in that sense,” said Tim Miller, a Republican consultant and frequent Trump critic.
“Trump will always change the subject if there’s something bad going on.” Rich Galen, Republican strategist