Trump Needs to Be ALL CAPS
Another day, another episode in the life of President Donald Trump, Unofficial Commissioner of the NFL.
But before we dive into it, could I have a brief aside to address the president?
Mr. President: Hi. Jason here. Yes, the idiot at the Journal. Not sure you’re getting this advice in the Oval Office, but: there is one and only one sports story that matters right now in Washington, D.C.—and that is the NHL Capitals, who are one win away from taking their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
I know you love to jump on football, it seems like great fun to torment the league, but keep your eye on the puck. DO NOT MESS WITH THE CAPS MOMENTUM, MR. PRESIDENT!
(snip)
We could go around and around on this topic ad nauseam, like we’re on a terrible cable news show: whether the President was correct to ban the team; whether the Eagles should have just sucked it up and gone; whether the White House is mistakenly (or very purposefully) conflating the Eagles’s tepid RSVP with player protests during the national anthem.
Because here’s how many Philadelphia Eagles players knelt during the national anthem last season, or sat it out in the locker room: Zero.
That’s right. Nobody.
I’m not sure the facts matter as much as the rancor, however. Knocking the NFL is a very popular wrestling move for the President—he admitted as much last year in private conversations with league ownership about the protests during the anthem, according to the Journal’s Andrew Beaton.
“This is a very winning, strong issue for me,” Mr. Trump said in a phone call to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, according to a sworn deposition reviewed by the Journal. “Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me.”
I agree. Taking on the NFL has been a winner for Trump. It’s noisy, reductivist, passionate and people on both sides are dug in. If NFL ownership thought the President would lay off them once they made their anthem rule, they were foolish.
For the White House, this is great fun. Why give it up now?
And this is why I’d recommend this move for the Philadelphia Eagles:
Ignore it.
Let it go. Do not make the same mistake that so many of the President’s targets make. Don’t engage. Don’t tweet. Go to the movies. Go get ice cream. Read John Carreyrou of the WSJ’s Theranos best seller, “Bad Blood.” Remove the oxygen, allow the fiasco to evaporate. Take a high road.
It’ll drive the unofficial NFL commish crazy.
I think by now we all know that Mr. Trump lives for the fight. Conflict is his fuel. A battle allows him to dictate terms, stretch the drama, poke his opponents. He wants his enemies to jump into the Octagon.
(snip)
So far, the Eagles are flying low. On Monday night, the team released an anodyne statement thanking their fans and not mentioning a word about the White House disinvite or Mr. Trump.
This could make the President bonkers.
What are the Eagles saying about my No-Eagles-Allowed party?
They’re saying nothing, Mr. President.
What? Hand me my Twitter machine.
(snip)
The point is, the show goes on. The President (whoever it is) is supposed make a few bad jokes and hold up a shirt with his name on it. It’s harmless photo-op, basically.
Now it’s become this heavy, humorless political…football. The White House is turning a sports ceremony into a showdown over patriotism.
It’s silly, unproductive, and best to ignore. There are bigger issues.
Like the biggest sports story in Washington, D.C., right now:
CAPS! CAPS! CAPS! ONE MORE TO GO!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-needs-to-be-all-caps-1528203649 (paid subscription)
Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com