Christian Pulisic Doing The Trump Dance Exposes Brain Rot Taking Place At Forbes, Across Media | Mark Harris
The Trump Dance is the celebration taking over the American sports world. Christian Pulisic, the face of U.S. men's soccer, brought the celebration to the global stage by doing the dance after scoring a goal against Jamaica, and people's brains simply can not handle it.
An American, specifically an American with a platform, doing a dance tipping their cap to the President-Elect who swept every swing state and won the popular vote by more than 2.5 million votes is something some can not comprehend.
The USMNT star explained that the celebration wasn't meant to be a political statement and that he was simply joining in on the dance seen across college football, the NFL, the UFC, and professional golf over the past couple of weeks.
"Well, obviously that’s the Trump dance," Pulisic explained after the USMNT's 4-2 win over Jamaica on Monday. "It was just a dance that everyone’s doing. He’s the one who created it. I just thought it was funny. It’s not a political dance. It was just for fun. I saw a bunch of people do it and I thought it was funny, so I enjoyed it. I hope some people did, at least."
Some people didn't enjoy it but most people enjoyed it. Those who didn't are among the vocal minority on social media who can't even read the name ‘Donald Trump’ without their blood pressure going up. Those people can't laugh at anything remotely tied to the President-Elect and take anything associated with Trump as literal as humanly possible.
This brings us to Forbes, specifically contributor Ian Nicholas Quillen, who published a column suggesting that Pulisic doing the Trump dance could lead members of the USMNT to not only being subject to political-based questions, but also having the team ripped apart due to Trump policies between now and the start of the 2026 World Cup.
We are currently living in the year 2024, but Pulisic doing a dance for four seconds after scoring a goal could negatively impact the USMNT in 2026, according to Mr. Quillen.
"The USMNT will be a face of the country during that time," Quillen writes, referencing the 2026 World Cup that will be hosted in North America. "And Pulsic’s actions may well bring additional focus on issues outside the sporting realm on a level that is orders of magnitude greater than anything the squad has experienced before."
Quillen then says that he can't predict what the next four years under Trump will look like, but hints that all of Western Europe will hate him, which means media from Europe who travels to the World Cup will pick on the USNMT. The horror.
"We can’t say for sure what will happen during Trump’s second presidential term. But if it reflects his first, he could be somewhat unpopular domestically and far more disliked abroad, particularly in Western Europe. It’s those Western European nations that are also likely to send the most foreign media to the tournament."
"It was probably unavoidable that the U.S. will face some political questions during the buildup to the summer of 2026. But Pulisic’s actions will make it far harder to shut them down, and in some ways makes them fair game."
The USMNT is a collection of grown men whose sole focus is winning soccer matches, and if and when they're asked about anything related to politics, they'll be able to manage. And again, we're talking about hypothetical media sessions two years into the future.
Christian Pulisic doing the Trump Dance has caused brain rot for some in the media. Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Quillen then moves onto the hot-button topic of immigration, and did not skimp on the scare tactics.
"Additionally, being seen — rightly or not — as someone loosely aligned with Trump could be increasingly fraught for Pulisic if the president-elect goes through with campaign promises to deport millions of illegal immigrants and limit pathways to U.S. citizenship," Quillen writes.
"Several USMNT regulars — like Tim Weah and Yunus Musah — qualify for the roster on the basis of birthright citizenship, something Trump’s administration has shown the desire to limit. Others like Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest were born abroad but USMNT-eligible based on family lineage."
"In doing his celebration, Pulisic has opened himself and his teammates to be asked about the potentially explosive issue of who should and shouldn’t be eligible to wear the Stars and Stripes."
This little thought project is some diabolical Trump Derangement Syndrome on full display.
According to Quillen, Pulisic doing a dance has potentially brought attention to the fact that the USMNT is filled with players not born in the United States and therefore could further motivate the President-Elect to crackdown on illegal immigration and dual citizenship agreements. Again, and I can't stress this enough, this is all in a reaction to Pulisic dancing after scoring a goal.
Quillen, a member of the media, writing about how concerned he is that the media may ask adult soccer players about illegal immigrants in the United States is certainly something. Forbes certainly isn't alone in trying to make something out of absolutely nothing. The Athletic published a story insulting the intelligence of its readers titled ‘Explaining Christian Pulisic’s ‘Donald Trump dance’ celebration and its impact.'
An anonymous U.S. Soccer Federation Employee is quoted in the piece stating, "Literally nobody here is surprised. It doesn’t feel that way, at least. But it’s still really disappointing, to say the least.
The reality is that most around the country have already moved past Pulisic doing the Trump Dance. By Friday nobody will be talking about it, and come 2026 the only people who will be asking soccer players about political issues are liberal, left-leaning sites that are only in business due to hate clicks centered around the idea that Donald Trump is the worst man to ever live.