As Trump Doubles Down on Eagles Cancellation, Fans Plan City Hall Celebration

President Donald Trump (Wikimedia Commons).

Everybody knows the deal with Eagles fans: Collectively they’re as rough-and-tumble as they come, and if pressed will gladly rain down boos or fisticuffs without one twinge of regret. Mobilizing their venom online isn’t the most difficult thing in the world to do – just ask sports talk blowhard Colin Cowherd.

You’d think that this would be a group that President Trump would steer clear of antagonizing after he just canceled the visit of their beloved Super Bowl champs to the White House, but no. On Tuesday, the day that he was supposed to be glad-handing with Doug Pederson and feigning a close knowledge of the NFL, Trump instead doubled down on his decision to cancel and (very wrongly) blamed the Eagles for it. Sad!

In a new statement released by the White House Press Office, the Trump administration cowardly said that “a majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans” in summarizing the headline-dominating scandal of the president’s own creation. Trump’s jingoistic and divisive tactic to use the flag as his platform for denying the systemic racism being protested by real men of character like Birds safety Malcolm Jenkins has now backfired, and he’s copping out by using business-speak phrases like “despite sensing a lack of good faith …” to cover his bruised ego.

The full text of the White House’s explanation for the change in programming for this afternoon’s ceremony can be read below:

After extensive discussions with the Eagles organization, which began in February, the team accepted an invitation from the President to attend a June 5 celebration of their victory in Super Bowl LII at the White House.

On Thursday, May 31, the team notified the White House of 81 individuals, including players, coaches, management, and support personnel, who would attend the event. On Friday, the Secret Service cleared them for participation. These individuals, along with more than 1,000 Eagles fans, were scheduled to attend the event.

Late Friday, citing the fact that many players would not be in attendance, the team contacted the White House again, and attempted to reschedule the event. The President, however, had already announced that he would be traveling overseas on the dates the Eagles proposed. The White House, despite sensing a lack of good faith, nonetheless attempted to work with the Eagles over the weekend to change the event format that could accommodate a smaller group of players. Unfortunately, the Eagles offered to send only a tiny handful of representatives, while making clear that the great majority of players would not attend the event, despite planning to be in D.C. today. In other words, the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans.

Upon learning these facts, the President decided to change the event so that it would be a celebration of the American flag with Eagles fans and performances by United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus.

Jenkins released the following remarks on social media for clarification:

#TheFightContinues pic.twitter.com/QWDdvZgQNL

— Malcolm Jenkins (@MalcolmJenkins) June 5, 2018

Despite the president’s shameful attempt at smearing their good name, the Eagles were back on the practice field this afternoon working toward repeating as champs. Carson Wentz is said to have looked good and is right on track for starting Week 1 against Atlanta. As for those rowdy Birds fans, a Facebook event has popped up for an impromptu gathering at City Hall around 5:15 p.m. to show support for the team regardless of political ideology. You know, the way this whole meeting in D.C. should have gone down in the first place …