Megan Rapinoe calls Trump ‘white nationalist,’ talks about running for office in video
US soccer star Megan Rapinoe has always demonstrated the same fire and passion she presents on the field in everything she does, including when speaking out about Donald Trump. In the past, the prismatic winger has never held back when referencing the current president and has put his actions on blast more than once and has taken heat from both Trump and his supporters.
But she isn’t planning on stopping anytime soon.
Vice Magazine released a portion of an interview with Rapinoe on Tuesday where the soccer star once again reprimanded Trump’s actions.
“Now, obviously, we have a white nationalist — I think — in the White House and the spewing of hate and the ‘othering’ of the rest of the country has only led to more rife between people and more despair and more anxiety and more fear going forward,” Rapinoe said. “There’s been nothing to ease Donald Trump’s base, really. There’s been nothing, it’s not like he’s given them a bunch of jobs.”
Trump famously went toe-to-toe with Rapinoe after the winger told Eight By Eight magazine that she wouldn’t visit the “f---ing” White House if the U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup in the summer of 2019. Trump went on a three-tweet rant regarding her comments.
Just as elegantly as she talked the talk, Rapinoe walked the walk. The USWNT took home a consecutive World Cup title — a record fourth overall.
“I held up my end of the bargain on that one,” the co-captain said, according to the Washington Post.
In an interview with CNN following the win, Rapinoe was asked what her message to Trump would be if she were standing right in front of him.
“I think that I would say that ‘Your message is excluding people,” she replied. “You’re excluding me. You’re excluding people that look like me. You’re excluding people of color. You’re excluding, you know, Americans that maybe support you.”
Rapinoe, who is openly gay and in a relationship with WNBA star Sue Bird, is a massive role-model in the LBGTQ community. In a powerful interview with Yahoo Sports before the World Cup last year, Rapinoe called Trump “racist,” “misogynistic,” “small-minded,” and “not a good person.”
In the latest interview with VICE on Tuesday, Rapinoe also spoke about if she were to run for political office and was asked what position she would run for if she were to do so.
“President, of course,” she said, according to Yahoo! Sports. “If I’m going to do it, I want the biggest, baddest post. That way, I can be the president, but then I get to pick everyone else who’s way smarter and way more qualified and way better at everything to actually do the thing.
“I’m not here being like ‘I’m the smartest, I should be the president.’ I’m actually like ‘I’m wholly unqualified for probably any position in government,’ but I’ve got that little bit of humility where I can be like ‘You’re smarter, you do this, you do this, you do this.’”