Christian Pulisic forced to defend doing ‘Trump dance’ celebration after scoring for USMNT

Soccer star Christian Pulisic has been forced to respond to criticism after he celebrated scoring a goal for the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) by doing the so-called “Trump dance.”

The USMNT captain, who also plays midfield for AC Milan, scored in the 14th minute of his side’s Concacaf Nations League quarter-final second leg clash against Jamaica at the CITYPARK arena in St Louis, Missouri, on Monday.

It was the first goal of the game, with Pulisic’s side going on to clinch a 4-2 win.

After scoring, Pulisic broke into President-elect Donald Trump’s signature double-fist-pump dance – a bizarre two-fisted shimmy the Republican has so often executed at his campaign rallies. Pulisic’s teammates Weston McKennie and Ricardo Pepi also joined in.

But following the game, Pulisic was asked to explain himself and denied that there was any political intent behind the gesture.

“Well obviously that’s the Trump dance,” he said.

“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 yesterday in the NFL, I saw Jon Jones do it. We’re just having a bit of fun, so I thought it was a pretty fun dance.”

Pressed on whether his celebration should be interpreted as an implicit endorsement of Trump, Pulisic said: “No, not at all. 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.”

As the former Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea attacker suggested, the Trump dance took the NFL by storm over the weekend, with Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Tennessee Titans wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Detroit Lions defensive duo Za’Darius Smith and Malcolm Rodriguez all getting in on the act.

Trump himself was back at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night to witness Jones, a UFC fighter, cheer his victory over Stipe Miocic by doing the same dance before passing his heavyweight title belt to the incoming commander-in-chief.

The 45th president, who recently secured a resounding win over Democrat Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election to secure his return to the White House, frequently pulled the move at the end of his campaign events – shuffling stiffly on the spot while swinging his fists in front of him to anthemic pop tracks like The Village People’s disco classic YMCA.

Pulisic’s goal, meanwhile, helped the USMNT advance to the Nations League semi-finals next March after they had picked up a narrow 1-0 win over Jamaica in the first-leg in Kingston last week.

The captain not only scored the first himself but also forced the error that led to Di’Shon Bernard’s deflected own goal for the second, before Pepi and Timothy Weah completed the rout, cancelling out a second-half brace from Demarai Gray.