President Donald Trump has yet again dis-invited another professional sports team from visiting the White House. It has been customary for championship teams to visit the White House for years, however, the current trend seems to be for teams to decline the offer. “This country’s president is a child. He needs to be more professional and less petty,” junior Francesca Bruce stresses. Just last year, the president took his invitation away from the Golden State Warriors after the team declined the president’s invite to celebrate their 2017 win in the NBA Finals. The team instead decided to visit the National African-American Museum of History and Culture in D.C. and participate in community outreach. Now, to celebrate their momentous victory over the New England Patriots in LII, the Philadelphia Eagles were invited to the president’s home. The event was scheduled to take place on June 5.  Following the invitation, fewer than ten players from the Eagles agreed to attend. This prompted the president to withdraw his invitation.

The refusal to accept the invitation comes in the light of the controversial era of professional football. The players refused to go because of their differing views with the president’s. Many players are falling in step with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, concerning his views with the national anthem. All across the nation, hundreds of players began taking a knee to protest the inequality and police brutality towards people of color, especially black people, in America today. The National Football League (NFL) has countered the protests with a new rule stating that all players must stand for the anthem or remain in the locker room until it is over. The Philadelphia Eagles remained a united front all throughout the 2017-18 football season as they all stood for the anthem. Though the players had differing opinions about the anthem protests, the team decided as a whole to stand. President Trump tweeted the night before the event, “The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!” The irony of the president’s tweet is that none of the players on the Eagles stayed in the locker room before any of their games.

In place of the event with the Eagles, Donald Trump coordinated a “Celebration of America” event.  The Celebration of America lasted just seven minutes. The president said a few words about why he held the event, stating “we stand to honor our military, and to honor our country, and to remember our fallen heroes who never made it back home.” The U.S. Marine Band and the U.S. Army Chorus preformed the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America.” The event was planned just a day before it occurred, so there wasn’t a lot of time to plan much else.

Donald Trump, as the leader of America, has not done a whole lot to promote unity throughout the nation. He has in fact done the exact opposite. The commander-in-chief’s judgement has been clouded by his own personal beliefs and opinions, which have been detrimental to the well-being of the country. As the president, he needs to consider every view and perspective so he can make the most well-informed decisions concerning the country. The voices of all Americans need to be heard and right now, that just isn’t happening.