| Here’s one place I never thought I’d see the dregs of the election show up: athlete celebration dances. But just in the past week, athletes across a few different sports have taken moments usually reserved for silly little jigs or elaborately choreographed pantomimes and have instead pumped their arms haltingly and swayed their hips awkwardly. It’s called the Trump Dance, because that’s what President-elect Donald Trump did when music played at one of his campaign rallies. It was most prevalent on Sunday, when Raiders rookie tight end Brock Bowers, Lions’ defensive players Za’Darius Smith and Malcolm Rodriguez and Titans wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine all did it. But it’s not just an NFL thing — Christian Pulisic and a few of his U.S. men’s national soccer teammates did it in a game this week, and UCF star Jon Jones did it Saturday while Trump was sitting ringside. West Virginia’s backup quarterback did it back on Nov. 9. I’m largely uninterested in the dance as a political act. I’m far more intrigued by how Trump is showing up in culture ahead of his second term, and how that connects to sports. The Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore included a great point from Emory University associate history professor Carl Suddler in the story he wrote about the fad this week: Trump has been a presidential candidate in every election for which most young voters in the country have been eligible to participate. In the eyes of some people — specifically young men; I haven’t seen any women athletes do the dance — Trump isn’t necessarily a political outlier, a boogeyman, or a savior. He might just be a normal fact of life, an ultra-famous figure who is perfect fodder for this week’s viral dance. “We’re just having a bit of fun,” Pulisic said when asked about his moves. Now, could athletes who do the dance simply be expressing their Trump support for all to see? Of course! But, man, almost no one seems to want us to think so. Over in the NFL, a Raiders public relations official cut short Bowers’ media session after he answered a question about the dance, and Kilgore reported the team did not include his comment in the transcript it sent to reporters. Pulisic outright denied his celebration was a political message. I find that fascinating, too — maybe the NFL is reticent to tangle with anything Trump-adjacent after he badgered the league over players’ political demonstrations during his first term and fans’ disapproval of those demonstrations were believed to have contributed to a ratings drop. And maybe the unwillingness to connect the Trump Dance to Trump support is just the knee-jerk desire to keep sports clean of politics, despite how much that border has eroded in recent years. But if men’s sports is any indication, the next four years won’t be defined as the raucous clash between the resistance (which included a number of high-profile athletes and coaches) and MAGA right, the way the first one was. It’s telling how relatively quiet athletes were during election season compared to 2020. There’s a lot less Trump resistance this time around, and more acceptance. But you didn’t need Brock Bowers to tell you that. | 
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