As Donald Trump enters the final days of his presidency, he has become more erratic and even some of his longest and most loyal supporters have jumped ship following the Capitol insurrection he incited last week.
Numerous members of his cabinet and staff have resigned — albeit, with just two weeks left it’s little more than an empty gesture — and he now faces another impeachment trial as the House prepares to move forward with a vote in coming days on bringing impeachment charges against him once again for his actions last week. However, the thing that has hurt Trump most is how the world of sports is even turning on him, most notably with the PGA announcing they would be moving the 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump’s Bedminster course, which reportedly left him more “gutted” than being impeached again.
Over the weekend, word emerged that among Trump’s plans for his final full week in office was to give Patriots coach Bill Belichick the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to which Belichick has now politely declined citing the actions of Trump last week and how this year “conversations about social justice, equality, and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions.”
Patriots’ HC Bill Belichick will not be traveling to Washington nor accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he announced today. pic.twitter.com/uvLLigFlHU
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 12, 2021
Given Trump’s adoration of football, an arena he’s never successfully gotten into despite his best efforts both in trying to buy the Buffalo Bills and then in helping to sink the USFL, this, like the PGA moving on from him, will almost assuredly sting him as bad if not worse than the other, far more important things happening right now in the nation’s capital.
It is the latest instance of people who have previously been supporters of Trump beginning to distance themselves publicly as he becomes increasingly toxic on his way out of office.