Washington, DC - President Donald Trump is taking heat for condemning NFL players who are using America's national anthem to protest so-called police brutality.  But, says AMAC president Dan Weber, "could it be that Mr. Trump really believes citizens should respect the symbols of our democracy?"

Weber, chief of the nation's largest conservative senior advocacy organization, the Association of Mature American Citizens, thinks that the president, "like most patriotic Americans, says what he means and means what he says: 'sports fans should never condone players that do not stand proud for their national anthem or their country.'  And, certainly, no matter what the anti-Trump protestors may say are the reasons behind their antics, refusing to stand for the Star Spangled Banner is not a protest against police brutality; it's a protest against America."

Weber said, "Celebrities and those in positions of power should not let their anger at wrongdoing turn into hatred against our country, whether it be real or perceived.  Too many Americans of all races and creeds have died defending America, our flag and our national anthem to disrespect their sacrifices.  Outspoken, reasonable dissent is a right of all citizens and has made our nation strong since its founding.  Stand up for causes in which you believe but stand up, too, for our homeland."

Robert Tracinski, a senior writer at The Federalist, says the NFL player protests are part of a "resistance" movement against the president.  In an article published in the Federalist earlier this week, Tracinski wrote: "The whole idea of 'taking the knee' began, from what I can gather, as a way for a mid-grade quarterback to sulk about being benched.  Then it turned, supposedly, into a symbolic protest against the injustice of police gunning down innocent black men.  This was originally in response to the 'hands up don't shoot' narrative about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a narrative that was comprehensively debunked by the Department of Justice civil-rights task force the Obama administration sent to Ferguson."

But President Trump has been denigrated for his position.  Many individuals appearing on nationally televised news programs and quoted in major daily newspapers say his message is racist and that he is racist.  In an interview broadcast on CNN, for example, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) called the president an "abject liar" and "clearly racist."  ESPN anchor Jemele Hill called him a "white supremacist."  The New Yorker accused Trump of practicing "racial demagoguery."  And, a Miami Herald, article authored by Jenee' Osterheldt, labeled him "a president who stands for oppression."

AMAC's Weber argues that the president is not a racist and that he, Weber, is not a "shill" for Donald Trump.  "I am, however a person who loves the USA.  It saddened me when President Obama went on his worldwide 'apology tour' at the beginning of his first term in office and was widely applauded by the left for his gesture.  It gladdens me when President Trump, at the outset of his presidency, stands up for America with the approval of a very large segment of the population.  The plain and simple truth is that he saw the NFL protestors disgracing our national anthem and said something about it, much to the chagrin of his detractors."