Following the USWNT’s bronze medal win over Australia, former U.S. president Donald Trump released a statement calling the USWNT a “radical group of Leftist Maniacs.”
In the statement, he suggested that if the team “wasn’t woke” they would have won gold instead of bronze.
🚨⚽️ | NEW: Donald Trump on the USWNT following the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/O8lDmblZrx— Football For All (@FootballlForAll) August 5, 2021
🚨⚽️ | NEW: Donald Trump on the USWNT following the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/O8lDmblZrx
“Woke means you lose,” he said. “Everything that is woke goes bad, and our soccer team certainly has.”
Trump and the USWNT have a bit of a history. In 2019, following the team’s World Cup win, they skipped the traditional White House visit.
“Considering how much time and effort and pride we take in the platform we have, using it for good and leaving the game in a better place and hopefully the world in a better place, I don’t think I would want to go,” Rapinoe said of the decision at the time.
As a result, Trump directly referenced “the woman with the purple hair” in his statement without using Rapinoe’s name, saying that she “played terribly.”
In the bronze medal match, Rapinoe scored two goals to put the United States ahead in their 4-3 victory over Australia, including her second-ever Olimpico.