Women’s World Cup: Trump attacks the USA women’s national team

Status: 08:15 AM| Reading time: 2 minutes

DrThe United States’ early exit from the Women’s World Cup is reverberating. While the dramatic round of 16 defeat by Sweden shocked fans in the United States, Donald Trump was thrilled at the end. The 77-year-old former president used the World Cup debacle to publicly compromise with the US team, especially with superstar Megan Rapinoe. Trump has a deep enmity for the forward, who missed a penalty against Sweden for years.

“Good blow Meghan, the United States is going to hell!” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social. Then the Republican accused some of the national players of bad intentions. “Many players are directly hostile to the United States.” Leaving is the punishment, said Trump, who also called his successor Joe Biden: “The shocking and totally unexpected defeat against Sweden is symbolic of what our country is happening under the evil 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 for taking a stand against Trump’s policies. The openly gay American player criticizes, among other things, homophobic statements by the president. Rapinoe declined the mandatory visit to the White House after winning the title.

For Rapinoe, the loss 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 a fitting opportunity,” she says. “It’s kind of black humor that I missed the penalty kick in that match. I joke a lot at the wrong time, so maybe that was the karma.”