Trump Urges Fans to Boycott WNBA Over Finals Anthem Walkouts as Rulebook Question Stays Open

Since the WNBA Finals began, the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries have left the court before the national anthem in each of the first three games. The practice has now drawn a call for a boycott from the president.

Speaking at a Republican rally in Iowa on Thursday night, Oct. 22, Trump brought it up unprompted. "By the way, what's going on with the women's NBA? What's that all about?" he said. "They'll destroy themselves before they get started because they just started to do good."

He then tied it to the NFL. "The NFL did that for a while and they stopped because people stopped watching the games. So I think you should do the same thing with women's basketball."

What the players did

Both teams warm up, then jog off roughly two minutes before the Star-Spangled Banner and return after it ends. They did it again before Game 3 on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, where Q Parker sang. The Valkyries lead the series 2-1.

Nobody knelt. The players were not on the floor at all, a distinction that matters because Trump framed the walkouts as a repeat of the NFL kneeling protests a decade ago.

The Valkyries say going to the locker room during the anthem has been part of their pregame routine since they joined the league last year. The Dream have done the same for several years. The Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx stayed on the floor this season.

The rule question

The rulebook is where the facts split. Fox's OutKick pointed to a provision requiring players, coaches and trainers to stand and line up during the anthem.

The Associated Press's Doug Feinberg reported that those protocols "were suspended years ago." The WNBA set them aside in a 2017 memo that let players show support for victims of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On that account, the players are not breaking any current rule.

The league, both teams and the NBA have not answered OutKick's questions about the walkouts or whether any discipline is under consideration. Newsweek's emails to the White House, the WNBA and both clubs have also gone unanswered so far. Atlanta last spoke on the subject in 2020, when it said the anthem "does not represent freedom, justice, and liberty for all Americans."

The political pile-on

Vice President JD Vance got there first. He told host Raymond Arroyo he thinks the walkouts are "disgraceful."

"I think that you should not express some criticism of a public policy of a given politician by disrespecting the country writ large," Vance said. He added that the players "have a lot to be grateful to the United States for, and I think that if they had a bit more of a spirit of gratitude, they'd be happier people."

Trump did not stop with the WNBA. Hours earlier he posted on Truth Social that LeBron James "disrespects our Country" and is a "TOTAL DISGRACE." He was reacting to video of James, now with the Philadelphia 76ers, appearing to practice a golf swing and shooting motion during the anthem before Tuesday's opener against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Trump demanded an apology to "Great American Warriors and Heroes."

James waved it off. "It must be a slow news day at the office," he told reporters.

At the rally, Trump also name-checked Caitlin Clark, saying a player from Iowa "was very good, very helpful" to the league's growth. The crowd had booed his WNBA remarks, according to the Daily Mail, and cheered at her name.

Does the NFL comparison hold?

The boycott pitch rests on Trump's claim about the NFL: that the kneeling stopped because viewers tuned out. That is his account of the cause. The sources here do not provide ratings data tying the end of those protests to viewership.

The WNBA's situation is different on the numbers it has reported. Recent seasons have brought record viewership and attendance, which is the growth Trump said the league risks "destroying." Whether a fan boycott dents that is untested.

There is also a plain fairness point on the policy side. If the anthem rule was suspended in 2017 and teams have been leaving the floor for years, the walkouts are a long-standing league practice, not a new defiance of written policy. Critics like Vance and Trump are objecting to the practice itself, not to a rule violation.

What comes next

Game 4 is next. The open questions are whether the WNBA, the Dream or the Valkyries will say anything on the record, and whether the league will clarify what its anthem policy actually requires. Trump's boycott call is aimed at the Finals broadcast and the league's audience, and the midterms are the stage he used to make it.