President Donald Trump tried to use Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt to criticize National Football League players who protest during the national anthem on Tuesday night.
But it didn’t go down well.
Trump tweeted this five-year-old video of the now retired track star cutting away from a live television interview during the London 2012 Summer Olympics so that he could stand for the U.S. national anthem.
“Even Usain Bolt from Jamaica, one of the greatest runners and athletes of all time, showed RESPECT for our National Anthem,” wrote Trump.
The president outraged many at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday with his thinly veiled attack on former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who have taken a knee in protest against police brutality and racial injustice during the national anthem before games.
Bolt himself has yet to comment on Trump’s tweet.
But Team Jamaica, a forum for the Caribbean island’s Olympic sports’ enthusiasts, immediately came to the runner’s defense and admonished the president to leave him “out of your politricks.”
The sentiment was echoed by hundreds of other tweeters, whose comments are sampled below: