A tweet by Shaun King, a columnist for The Intercept includes a letter by a high school principal in Louisiana threatening athletes with sanctions if they do not stand during the National Anthem.

Members of the NFL have said that the “#TakeAKnee” campaign is a protest against racism and police brutality.

Based on the action of one player (Colin Kaepernick) who is presently unemployed, Trump decided to turn the issue into a culture war in which he is the defender of the Flag and Patriotism. This is red meat for his base. If you #TakeAKnee” or if you disagree with Trump, you are against the Flag, the National Anthem, and Patriotism.

The good news is that NFL teams are standing together (that is, kneeling together) in unity against racism and police brutality; even their owners and managers are joining their protests. These are strong men. They are not easily cowed, especially not by a bully who escaped military service because he had sore feet.

At least seventy percent of players in the NFL are African American. The team must be a team, working together in unity, or it is not a team.

If the owners fired the players who “took a knee,” they would have to fire the entire team, the managers, and themselves.

Trump is very pleased with himself. He thinks he has gotten hold of a terrific issue, one that pits him against unpatriotic people of color. It distracts attention from the investigations of him and his family and allows him to pontificate on the greatness of the flag and the anthem. He thinks it is a winner for him.

But here is the dilemma: His base loves professional sports. There is no evidence that they will stop attending NFL games or watching them on TV.

Like most of what Trump does, he is not serious. He will drop this issue when he has gotten maximum PR value from it and he will find another one to divide people and turn them against their neighbors.