Today President Donald Trump proposed a—somewhat—novel solution to NFL players protesting during the national anthem, but it’s one that exemplifies his lack of understanding of the conditions in our nation that players are upset about.
WATCH: Trump says he will ask NFL players who kneel during National Anthem for a list of those they feel should be pardoned pic.twitter.com/lWSTNXhxwG
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) June 8, 2018
On the White House lawn, Trump suggested that he could meet with players who protested and pardon those who NFL players thought were victims of injustice. Trump, who has recently become enamored with the pardon power, naturally thinks by his benevolence he can fix it. But his belief that the dispute can be resolved by the pardon power belies a lack of understanding of the issue.
The American justice system is wildly skewed and disproportionately incarcerates people of color. So while pardoning and commuting sentences of people unfairly punished within it would be a big step, it ignores the systemic issues that NFL players are actually trying to raise awareness around.
It’s a short-term, small-scale fix that would garner headlines and give the appearance of making a difference, but actually, do extremely little to solve the problem.
In other words, perfectly Trump.
