Trump goes after the World Cup from the USA on national players
“Good shot Megan, the US is going to hell!”
Former US President Donald Trump has railed against US soccer player Megan Rapinoe on his social media platform “Truth Social”. The US soccer women had previously surprisingly lost the World Cup round of 16 against Sweden.
Donald Trump uses the surprising end of the World Cup in the USA to settle accounts with the national team. Above all, superstar Megan Rapinoe draws the wrath of the former US President. The departure is a punishment, Trump rumbles.
DUSA’s early elimination from the Women’s World Cup reverberates. While the dramatic defeat in the round of 16 against Sweden shocked fans in the United States, Donald Trump was happy about the end. The 77-year-old ex-president used the World Cup debacle for a general settlement with the US team, especially with superstar Megan Rapinoe. Trump has had a deep enmity with the striker, who failed from the penalty spot against Sweden, for years.
Trump wrote on the social media platform “Truth Social”: “Good shot Megan, the USA is going to hell!”. Then the Republican accused some national players of bad intentions. “Several of the players are directly hostile to the United States.” The elimination is the punishment, said Trump, who also made a connection with his successor Joe Biden: “The shocking and completely unexpected defeat against Sweden is a symbol of what our country happening under the villain Joe Biden.”
Rapinoe and Trump have publicly attacked each other several times in the past few years. When the United States became world champions in France in 2019, Rapinoe refused to sing the national anthem to take a stand against Trump’s policies. The openly homosexual US player criticizes, among other things, homophobic statements by the President. Rapinoe declined the mandatory visit to the White House after winning the title.
Donald Trump used the United States’ elimination to settle accounts with the women’s team
Credit: AP/Alex Brandon
For Rapinoe, losing to Sweden was the last big game of her career. “I’ve loved everything about my career and will miss it terribly, but it also feels like the right opportunity,” she says. “It’s a bit of black humor that I missed that penalty in that game. I joke too much at the wrong time so maybe that was karma.”