The first thing to know about Donald Trump’s dancing craze is that it’s not really a craze. Nor, to be honest, is it a dance.
What is certain, however, is that the president-elect’s signature move is all the rage among professional athletes, imitated by at least five NFL players this Sunday (17), as well as Jon Jones, the UFC heavyweight champion. , who apparently helped spread the trend on Saturday night after knocking out Stipe Miocic in the third round.
Jones celebrated by swaying from side to side and pumping his fists at waist level — both traits of Trump’s dance — before pointing his finger at Trump, who was sitting ringside at the fight in New York. Trump, who never misses a chance to receive a compliment, smiled at the moment and quickly reposted Jones’ performance on his Truth Social account.
Trump’s affinity for events like UFC fights and football games — both rife with machismo — has been widely documented and was seen during the campaign as part of a broader effort to appeal to young people.
Public support for Trump’s moves by prominent athletes came after he fell behind his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in terms of big-name celebrity endorsements. His resounding victory on Nov. 5, however, resulted in an outpouring of congratulations from famous people — a diverse group that includes the likes of Caitlyn Jenner and Sylvester Stallone. Jones and NFL players have expanded that circle even further.
For those unfamiliar, Trump’s contortions are far from the complexities of the moonwalk, the Macarena or the Electric Slide. Simple and strangely hypnotic, Trump’s movement embodies the kind of rigid twirl often used by rhythmless or conventionally clumsy wedding guests. In the bent elbows and pumping fists, there’s a certain slowed-down homage to Frank the Tank — Will Ferrell’s drunken character in the 2003 film “Awesome Days” — while the corresponding hip action makes it a dance simultaneously unsuitable for most. of the songs and, perhaps, barely passable for all of them.
On Sunday, more variations emerged, from NFL players like Brock Bowers, a tight end for the Las Vegas Raiders, who did a quick dance in the end zone with the Trumpian boogie, something he said was inspired by Jones. “I saw it and thought it was cool,” Bowers told reporters. Several other players have held similar celebrations in other games.
Of course, in a hyperpartisan and often conspiratorial political environment, Bowers’ comments — and the fact that the Raiders ended their press availability after a question about them — soon turned into speculation that the NFL was avoiding any kind of endorsement, through dance or otherwise. The Associated Press reported that Bowers’ comments were not included in the team’s postgame videos or transcripts provided by the team.
A request for comment from the Raiders was not immediately returned.
Some social media users strongly disputed the idea that the athletes had done anything wrong, comparing the situation to overtly political acts, such as when the NFL showed support for “Black Lives Matter.”
Trump’s fondness for these dance moves has been a staple of his campaigns for years, including one in October when a pair of medical emergencies in the audience led to long delays, during which the Republican nominee bobbed his head to the tune of ” YMCA”, by Village People, one of his favorite songs, and heard a version of “Ave Maria”, which is a difficult song for anyone to dance to.
Although Trump is the originator of the dance, several sources credit another NFL player — Nick Bosa, a star defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers — with its wider popularization, after he did the Trump dance on Nov. 10 following a sack. A day earlier, Bosa had been fined $11,255 by the league for violating a rule by wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat in a post-game, pre-election television interview.
Of his fine, Bosa said: “It was worth it.”
As for whether any rules were broken this weekend, the league said Monday that there was “no issue with celebratory dancing like that which occurred yesterday or last week with the 49ers.” The penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, he added, only covers celebrations that are excessively long, violent or “sexually suggestive or offensive.”
