As anyone over the age of, oh, 12 can tell you, what seems cool today will make you cringe in the future. Hairstyles, clothes, trends, sayings — at some point, you’ll look back and regret your life choices. What made me think that was a good look? I posted that? Why didn’t somebody tell me that was a bad idea?
So it will be with athletes and their “Trump dance” celebrations.
Actually, mimicking president-elect Donald Trump’s dance moves looks dumb in the moment. Jerking your arms while slowly swaying your hips as if you’re an awkward and uncoordinated octogenarian robot.
But the real dismay will come when athletes realize exactly what it was they were glorifying and what these celebrations normalized. Not the true believers like Nick Bosa and Jon Jones. The others, who thought they were only following a trend and didn’t give much thought to what they were endorsing.
“It was just a dance that everyone’s doing. He’s the one who created it. I just thought it was funny,” Christian Pulisic said after doing the dance as his goal celebration in the U.S. men’s national team’s 4-2 win over Jamaica on Monday night.
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“It’s not a political dance. It was just for fun. I saw a bunch of people do it and I thought it was funny, so I enjoyed it. I hope some people did, at least.”
Sure. It’s all fun and games until people start getting deported. Until our Constitution is set on fire so alleged sexual predators can get Cabinet appointments. Until the economy tanks because of tax cuts for billionaires and tariffs that Americans pay for.
But hey! At least you got a laugh.
Part of the reason Trump won was because he vastly improved with young male voters, white men in particular. Trump had a 14-point advantage (56-42) with men ages 18-29, a 29-point swing from 2020, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. White men in that age group went for Trump 63-35.
Trump courted these “Trump bros” with appearances on podcasts geared to young men, including the Nelk Boys, Theo Von, Adin Ross and “Bussin with the Boys.” The appeal, besides the pods’ demographics, was that there was very little policy talk. Trump wasn’t asked about plans for a second term or challenged when he provided thin answers or spouted gibberish.
Which means some of these young men who voted for Trump, some of these athletes now celebrating him, likely didn’t fully understand what they were voting for.
They thought they were getting a funny, sometimes profane guy who was “buds” with their favorite podcaster, not knowing or realizing he was dead serious about his threats of mass deportation and retribution, as well as his plans to upend the economy and the federal government. They thought he was some model of masculinity, not recognizing real men don’t need to belittle or attack others, particularly women and people of color.
Should they have? Of course. So should the other so-called “marginal” Trump voters who just wanted their grocery bills to come down. But our media ecosphere is so broken that facts no longer matter, and it’s almost impossible to break through the blizzard of lies and obfuscations.
Until those red flags people were waving wildly become a reality, and athletes are confronted with just what it was they were glorifying.
How will Calvin Ridley feel when he sees other families ripped apart like his was because moms and dads are being deported? How will Pulisic feel if Yunus Musah’s place on the U.S. men’s national team is threatened because Trump is trying to claw back birthright citizenship? How will Za’Darius Smith feel if another hurricane hits his offseason home but residents had little warning because Trump dismantled the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency?
How will any of these athletes feel when Trump does monstrous things, knowing they had a hand in normalizing him? Because at this moment in history, it’s impossible to separate a dance trend from the politician who inspired it.
“There’s a tendency — and not just among athletes, among lots of people — to think there’s a disconnect between popular culture and politics. But the very fact that Donald Trump is president-elect is evidence that that’s not the case,” said Thomas Oates, an associate professor of American studies and journalism at the University of Iowa.
“His brand was not built in politics. It was built in pop culture. The transferability of that brand should be obvious to everyone now,” Oates said. “Not just athletes, but people in general really need to think about those different spheres and how they intersect.”
Some fads age better than others. The “Trump dance” isn’t likely to be one of them.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
