United States forward Christian Pulisic has claimed there were no politics behind celebrating a goal against Jamaica on Monday night with the viral Donald Trump dance.
The AC Milan player gave his country the lead in the second leg of the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final, going on to score again later in the 4-2 victory.
Pulisic managed to beat Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake to a cross in the box, knocking the ball into the net and wheeling away in celebration. He then proceeded to perform dance moves similar to that of the president-elect, which have exploded on social media in recent weeks.
Trump’s impending second presidency has massively divided America and the wider world, with Pulisic’s actions causing an equally divided and major reaction on social media. He insisted afterwards that he just thought it was a “pretty fun dance”, denied any political endorsement and labelled it a copycat move after already seeing other sports stars engage in it.
“Well obviously that’s the Trump dance,” Pulisic told reporters when asked if it was intentional. “It was just a dance that everyone’s doing. He’s the one who created it. I just thought it was funny. I saw everyone doing it in the NFL, I saw [UFC fighter] Jon Jones do it.
“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.”
The dance even made to England’s League One on Friday, with Barnsley players using it to celebrate a goal in their game against Rotherham United.