It was aTitanic-like moment Twitter could not resist.
PresidentDonald Trumpon Monday hugged Washington Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki from behind duringthe team’s White House visit— for a moment inadvertently recreatingLeonardo DiCaprio‘s famous pose withKate Winsletin the 1997 film.
“King of the world,” theLos Angeles Timestweeted.
Trump’s embrace was prompted when Suzuki, there celebratingthe Nationals’ World Series winwith most of his teammates, was invited to address the crowd. He donned a “Make America Great Again” hat as he walked up to the microphone, to Trump’s visible delight (and dismay from some online).
“I love him! Awww,” the president, 73, said as he reached from behind Suzuki to embrace Suzuki across the chest before shaking his shoulders fondly.
Suzuki, speaking to the crowd of thousands on the White House South Lawn, said simply, “I love you all.”
“What a job he did. I didn’t know that was going to happen,” Trump said afterward, apparently referring to Suzuki’s hat choice.
“‘President Donald Trump then reached around to feel Kurt Suzuki’s nipples.’ This would have seemed such an odd thing to write in 2010,” sportswriter Dan Szymborskitweeted.
The parody Twitter account DPRK News Servicewrote, “Donald Trump gropes breasts of Kurt Suzuki, demonstrating lack of sexism.”
“Just Donald Trump & Kurt Suzuki cosplaying MAGA Titanic,” another Twitter userwrote, while a Trump fangushed, “Well I know whose @Nationals jersey I’ll be buying!”
Conservative writer Seth Mandeltweeted, “Trump chest-fondling Kurt Suzuki in a MAGA hat behind a podium with the presidential seal is an amazing artifact that future societies will one day unearth and doubt its authenticity.”
According to reporters at Monday’s event, about 5,300 people were in attendance.
“We’re honored to be here in the long tradition of honoring champions in the White House,” the Nationals’ general manager, Mike Rizzo, said.
Trump, who could not resist referring back to himself, said, “America fell in love with the Nats baseball … it’s all they wanted to talk about — that and impeachment. I like Nats baseball much more.”
Suzuki’s teammate Ryan Zimmerman, a first baseman, presented Trump with a Nationals jersey with the number “45” — for 45th president.
“We’d … like to thank you for keeping everyone here safe in our country and continuing to make America the greatest country to live in the world,” said Zimmerman, 35.
Sean Doolittle, a Nationals pitcher, was the first player to confirm he would not be attending Monday’s White House event,tellingThe Washington Post: “At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.”
Other players who declined to attend on Monday included Javy Guerra, Anthony Rendon, Victor Robles, Joe Ross, Michael A. Taylor and Wander Suero,according to thePost.
“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” Doolittle, 33, told the paper. “My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the ‘s—hole countries.’ ”
“I have a brother-in-law who has autism, and [Trump] is a guy that mocked a disabled reporter,” Doolittle said. “How would I explain that to him that I hung out with somebody who mocked the way that he talked or the way that he moves his hands? I can’t get past that stuff.”
source: people.com
