Sports and politics are interwoven in increasingly complex ways. From Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ powerful silent protest on the podium during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games, athletes have used sport to have their voices heard. In the weeks following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, another political trend has emerged across the sporting world: The “Trump dance.”
Popular amongst supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, the dance involves a herky-jerky shaking of the arms and hips. It has been used to celebrate goals, touchdowns, and other big-time plays in the last month. Raiders breakout rookie tight end Brock Bowers and U.S. men’s soccer star Christian Pulisic were among the players who used this dance as a celebration. When questioned postgame about the dance, both athletes had a similar response—that the dance wasn’t political, and was just used because it was “fun” and popular.
The players owe spectators a better explanation than that. They are more than entitled to celebrate their achievements in any fashion they want, but to do so by paying tribute (whether they meant to or not) to a controversial leader like Trump while simply writing the celebrations off as jokes is unacceptable. Even overt homages to Trump are not commented on by the athletes themselves. San Francisco 49ers star defensive lineman Nick Bosa interrupted Quarterback Brock Purdy’s post-game interview while showing off a Make America Great Again hat but had little to say about the incident in a press conference afterward. Bosa was eventually fined because he violated the league’s uniform policy, but the damage was already done; his actions had set social media ablaze.
The effect of the players’ celebrations is compounded by their lack of explanation, reflecting the position of privilege these athletes have. When basketball legend and current Lakers forward LeBron James commented on the challenges that Black athletes faced, including an incident where someone graffitied a racial slur on his house, Fox News personality Laura Ingraham told her viewers that James should just “shut up and dribble,” a now-infamous phrase.
American conservatives have been campaigning for what seems like forever to remove any political statements from athletics. Every sports fan has heard “keep politics out of sports” in numerous contexts, whether it be against Pride Month celebrations or anti-racism efforts from leagues worldwide. Now that the political action being taken in sports is from athletes whose beliefs land on the conservative side of the spectrum, detractors of people like Kaepernick and James are now celebrating the actions of Pulisic and Bowers. It outlines a clear double standard within the sports world.
Kaepernick was blackballed from the NFL because of his anthem displays. In addition, NFL general managers were outwardly resentful of Kaepernick and his political views, with the late Houston Texans owner Bob McNair going as far as saying that they “couldn’t have the inmates running the prison.” McNair later apologized for his racist comment, then walked back his apology.
The overarching problem with these celebrations is not that the athletes should not be able to do the Trump dance, it’s that their post-game comments show a profound ignorance of the consequences of their actions. White athletes writing off a Trump-inspired celebration as nothing more than a joke unrelated to politics, while Black athletes have faced career-ending consequences for similar displays, is a clear example of injustice. There is a willful ignorance around the reaction to these celebrations, and a lack of consideration for how the dance can be used to further the popularity of a president whose leadership has brought pain and struggle to families across the United States. The lack of understanding by these players that their actions have consequences is disappointing but unsurprising, and the increased normalization of these celebrations will only bring on more support from conservative fans.
