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- Former President Donald Trump released a statement attacking the US women's olympic soccer team.
- Trump claimed the team would have won the gold instead of bronze it if wasn't led by "Leftist Maniacs."
- Trump took particular aim at star player Megan Rapinoe, who scored two of the US's four goals on Thursday.
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Former President Donald Trump released a statement attacking the US women's olympic soccer team after they beat Australia to win the bronze medal on Thursday.
"If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of Leftist Maniacs, wasn't woke, they would have won the Gold medal instead of the Bronze," he said. "Woke means you lose, everything that is woke goes bad, and our soccer team certainly has."
"They should replace the wokesters with Patriots and start winning again," Trump added.
Trump also singled out one of the team's star players, Megan Rapinoe, calling her "the woman with purple hair," and said she played "terribly," despite scoring two of the US's four goals – including a rare corner kick goal known as an "olympico" – on Thursday.
Rapinoe, who helped lead the US to its gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, is an outspoken Trump critic who endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the 2020 Democratic primary. Trump previously attacked Rapinoe after she refused to visit the White House while he was president.
-Sam Stein (@samstein) August 5, 2021
Trump made a similar argument during a rally in Arizona late last month, during which he celebrated the US team's loss to Sweden.
"Wokeism makes you lose, ruins your mind, and ruins you as a person. You become warped. You become demented. The US women's soccer team is a very good example of what's going on," Trump said at the time.
The crowd cheered as Trump said, "Earlier this week they unexpectedly lost to Sweden, 3-0, and Americans were happy about it."
Rapinoe conceded that the US women's soccer team "just didn't have our juice," but said the team found it's "joy" and "freedom" during the game on Thursday.
"Eventually we'll have to do the debrief and figure out why we played five bad games and had one good game in the tournament," she said.