President Trump slammed sports shoe maker Nike for sending a “terrible message” by spotlighting the failed, America-hating football player, Colin Kaepernick, in its 30th anniversary "Just Do It" advertising campaign.
A new Nike ad features a close-up photograph of the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback's face alongside text reading, "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything." Kaepernick may not have the marketing power of say, Che Guevara, but he does appeal to younger members of the angry Left, which is what Nike is gambling on.
Nobody wants to hire the publicity-obsessed athletic mediocrity
The backlash to this ugly corporate appeasement of the leftist mob was fast and furious. Nike’s market capitalization has plummeted $4 billion in recent days. Its stock price fell nearly 3 percent Tuesday. Angry football fans have registered their disgust on social media which is now filled with images of Americans denouncing Nike as they burn Nike-branded sneakers and dismember Nike products such as socks.
Of course, Kaepernick never sacrificed anything. He was the first National Football League player to take a knee during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the games of the 2016 NFL season to protest perceived injustices in American society such as police brutality. This Black Lives Matter movement leader assumed free agent status in the sports league but nobody wants to hire the publicity-obsessed athletic mediocrity.
“I think it’s a terrible message that they’re sending and the purpose of them doing it, maybe there’s a reason for them doing it,” Trump said of Nike in an interview Tuesday with the Daily Caller. “But I think as far as sending a message, I think it’s a terrible message and a message that shouldn’t be sent. There’s no reason for it.”
Trump conceded Nike has the right to feature Kaepernick in the advertisement.
“As much as I disagree with the Colin Kaepernick endorsement, in another way — I mean, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “In another way, it is what this country is all about, that you have certain freedoms to do things that other people think you shouldn’t do, but I personally am on a different side of it.”
Being unemployed and off-the-radar hasn’t harmed Kaepernick’s ability to generate media attention
Trump poured more scorn on Nike on Wednesday, tweeting:
Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts. I wonder if they had any idea that it would be this way? As far as the NFL is concerned, I just find it hard to watch, and always will, until they stand for the FLAG!
Being unemployed and off-the-radar hasn’t harmed Kaepernick’s ability to generate media attention. His anti-American activism, best exemplified by the national anthem knee-taking, helped to alienate fans and accelerate the NFL’s downward slide that was already in progress.
Kaepernick’s antics helped to convince the NFL to funnel about $100 million to leftist charities devoted to what ESPN calls “social justice change,” like those founded by admitted communist Van Jones. About 25 percent of the money will go to the Jones-founded Dream Corps. It is bankrolled by members of the radical philanthropic establishment, including the Ford Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, and the Energy Foundation.
Like other high-profile Black Lives Matter figures, Kaepernick is a supporter of convicted cop killer Assata Shakur who broke out of prison in 1979 and fled to Communist Cuba where she still resides.
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Nike’s new poster child for anti-Americanism
Kaepernick acknowledged raising $20,000 for Chicago-based Assata’s Daughters in matching donations, on top of the $25,000 he personally gave the group previously, the Washington Times reported in February. The $20,000 in pledged donations comes from comedian Hannibal Buress and actress Yara Shahidi. On its website Assata’s Daughters claims it “carries on the tradition of radical liberatory activism encompassed by Assata Shakur.”
Kaepernick uses his Twitter feed largely for retweeting tweets he agrees with. On July 4 he retweeted @haymarketbooks which tweeted this quotation from Assata Shakur: “Nobody in history has gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people oppressing them." Kaepernick is worth $119 million and has access to any microphone he wants. His oppression consists of NFL owners not thinking that his quarterback skills exceed his nuisance liability.
It is unclear how big a payday Kaepernick will receive for becoming Nike’s new poster child for anti-Americanism.
But it’s a safe bet that his hateful activism against this country will keep bringing him millions of dollars a year for the foreseeable future.
It’s dirty money.
President Trump slammed sports shoe maker Nike for sending a “terrible message” by spotlighting the failed, America-hating football player, Colin Kaepernick, in its 30th anniversary "Just Do It" advertising campaign.
A new Nike ad features a close-up photograph of the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback's face alongside text reading, "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything." Kaepernick may not have the marketing power of say, Che Guevara, but he does appeal to younger members of the angry Left, which is what Nike is gambling on.
