President Trump has gleefully stepped right smack dab into the middle of the #TakeAKnee trend that’s currently sweeping football, from the NFL right on down to the pee wee leagues. Colin Kaepernick started the fad last season, when he still had a career as a professional quarterback, saying he wouldn’t stand for the playing of the National Anthem because he didn’t feel pride in the flag of a country that he thinks oppresses black people.

Other athletes followed suit, putting coaches in the unenviable position of either having to support their kneeling player, thus enraging a significant portion of their fanbase, or distancing themselves from the actions of the player, thus putting the coach directly in the crosshairs of SJWs, who live to harass good people.

Everything changed last night, however, when Donald Trump uttered these words at a campaign rally in Alabama for Sen. Luther Strange:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired. He’s fired!’

You know, some owner is gonna do that. He’s gonna say, ‘That guy disrespects our flag, he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it. They don’t know it. They’re friends of mine, many of them. They don’t know it. They’ll be the most popular person, for a week. They’ll be the most popular person in this country.”

His words, with which many a good American agrees, have prompted a slew of professional football players to declare that they, too, will #TakeAKnee during tomorrow’s games to show their displeasure with the President. So, now, taking a knee is a sign of the #Resistance and an anti-Trump sentiment, not some sort of peaceful protest of a perceived wrong. In short, it means exactly nothing … except that it means everything, in that the Left has let Trump pull their strings like a masterful puppeteer.

The only people roused to action by Trump’s words are those who were already spending their days trolling Trump on Twitter and marching through the streets of DC wearing ridiculous pink hats. In short, permanently angry leftists remain angry. The athletes who fail to stand for the National Anthem tomorrow will be seen as overpaid, out of touch brats. Everyday Americans already took action by electing Trump last year and tuning out the NFL this year (just check their sinking ratings).

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell released a rebuttal to President Trump’s words, saying, “The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture.” But, the NFL hasn’t been at its best in a very long time, has it? Yes, part of the decreasing popularity can be attributed to changes in the game designed to protect players. But, yes, it’s also the insidious politicization of the game that has creeped in slowly, but has certainly not gone unnoticed by America.

One of the reasons Trump was elected was to call out issues that are important to those who voted for him. And, guess what? Americans don’t like seeing the wussification of one of their national sports. They don’t agree with the Colin Kaepernicks, who kneel because they think our country is bad, even though they themselves have been abundantly blessed by America. But they do agree with what Trump said about NFL owners taking control of the situation, and they applaud him for saying it.

And the idea that the President shouldn’t have “gone there”? You think Obama wouldn’t have kissed the cleats of Colin Kaepernick and called for a National Day of Kneeling? Please. If you’re expecting Donald Trump to conform to a pre-conceived notion of what being “presidential” means, you might not understand why he was victorious last November.

Once, pro athletes kneeled in a misguided act of civil disobedience. Now, pro athletes kneel at the behest of Donald Trump. And they don’t even realize it.