*Donald Trump was roasted online a few weeks ago for serving the national champion Clemson Tiger college football team a fast-food buffet at the White House. The decision to serve the athletes cold burgers came after the president hijacked the country with his petty government shutdown over border control; and his administration later tied to blame the Democrats for the less than stellar food choice.
“Because the Democrats refuse to negotiate on border security, much of the residence staff at the White House is furloughed—so the president is personally paying for the event to be catered with some of everyone’s favorite fast foods,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement to the New York Times.
As noted by vox.com, speaking to reporters before the team showed up, Trump proudly displayed the spread of “great American food,” and said, “we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries — all of our favorite foods.”
The following morning, Trump tweeted that the number of burgers had grown to “over 1000 hamberders etc.” He later reposted the tweet without the typo.
But The Root reports that Clemson’s Black players, some citing Trump’s racism and divisive politics, passed on the opportunity to hang out with the former reality TV star. Matter fact, both Black and white players had no interest in making the trip… and Trump was the reason they chose not to attend, the report states.
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“It wasn’t like we had a team meeting or anything,” said one of Clemson’s offensive stars who spoke with The Root on the condition of anonymity. “Players were talking amongst each other but everybody was like: ‘I’m not going to that.’”
Another player noted that they were not pressured by the coaches to attend but some obliged anyway because they didn’t want to risk their scholarships or playing time.
“Not saying anything against the players who went,” the junior explained, “but if you look at who went—freshman and people fighting for playing time—you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
Per The Root:
In total, 15 of the University’s black players listed on the school’s official roster attended the White House visit, the vast majority of whom (11) were freshmen or sophomores who had very little playing time during the season. Just one senior made the trip and only six of the players in attendance were even listed on Clemson’s national championship depth chart. There are at least 57 black student-athletes on Clemson’s official team roster, which means 74 percent of Clemson’s African-American players chose not to make the trip to the White House.
Joe Galbraith, Clemson’s associate vice president for strategic communications, addressed the issues, stated in an email to The Root that approximately two-thirds of Clemson’s players attended Trump’s White House McCookout.
“We had 76 student-athletes (approximately two-thirds of the team) make the trip to D.C.,” Galbraith’s statement read. “For a variety of reasons, several players were not able to adjust schedules to make the trip.
“On the championship game roster, 26 players had already received their bachelor’s degree, and had no planned obligations on campus beginning that week,” the email added. “Other student-athletes had class obligations as the spring semester began the week prior.”
WATCH:
Here’s a video I shot of President Trump showing off his 300 hamburgers. pic.twitter.com/P06S6I5w07
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 14, 2019
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