Trump tweets that Nike is 'getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts' over its Colin Kaepernick ad


President Donald Trump has once again weighed in on Nike's polarizing new ad featuring Colin Kaepernick.

"Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts," he tweeted on Wednesday morning. "I wonder if they had any idea that it would be this way?"

Trump's tweet also referenced the NFL's declining TV ratings and said that he finds it "hard to watch" and "always will, until [the players] stand for the FLAG!"

Kaepernick is the star of Nike's new "Just Do It" ad, which the former NFL quarterback tweeted on Monday. The ad features a close-up of Kaepernick with the words "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything" emblazoned on his face.

The reference to sacrifice most likely links Kaepernick's going unsigned in the NFL to his kneeling during the national anthem, which he began doing in 2016 to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Nike retweeted Kaepernick's tweet with the ad.

Trump weighed in on Nike's ad for the first time during an interview with conservative news outlet The Daily Caller on Tuesday, saying it "sends a terrible message."

It's true that Nike has been the target of anger from certain customers, with many on social media supporting a boycott and burning their Nike apparel in protest. Whether that anger is outweighed by the positive reaction for others will remain to be seen, but most business and brand observers say that Nike likely weighed the risks of a polarizing ad like this before releasing it. They decided to release it anyway, which makes sense when you look at Nike's core demographic of young, diverse urbanites.

Millennials are also more likely to be "belief-driven buyers," which dovetails well with Nike's ambitious ad.

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