Gregg Popovich calls for Donald Trump resistance: 'He brings out the dark side of human beings'

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is no stranger to taking on President Donald Trump. This is no secret.

On Sunday, Popovich called out Trump’s “cowardice” for leaving Washington D.C. to spend time at Mar-a-Lago last weekend during the “March for Our Lives” gun control rally and for allowing himself to be influenced by the NRA.

It’s not the first time Popovich has dubbed Trump a coward, while he’s called the U.S. under Trump’s watch an “embarrassment in the world.”

On Tuesday, before the Spurs’ matchup with the Washington Wizards, Popovich spoke with reporters and urged resistance to Trump’s policies and methods. He called out the Trump administration for gutting the federal government of scientifically sound health and environmental policy and replacing informed decision makers with politicians, while sidetracking the American public by creating distracting headlines.

“He’s great at it,” Popovich said. “He brings out the dark side of human beings for his own purpose, which is himself. If it’s not pointed out, if people don’t stand up and point it out, it will become commonplace. It’s not the world that I want to live in.”

Popovich shifted focus from criticizing Trump to lauding the youth who have led the resistance to America’s gun culture in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre that left 17 dead at the hands of a lone gunman carrying a semiautomatic rifle on February 14.

“That’s why the kids that have been doing this, the march and everything, they give me hope that I’m living in the country that I thought I was living in. Because at times, it’s not where I thought I was living. They’ve made me believe — they give you hope for the future that they want to do things that have moral clarity and common sense.

“We have a president who sat across the table in a fake environment of goodwill to talk about gun violence just like the immigration facade where he’d sign anything, and of course he didn’t do anything. He actually leaned across the table and told two senators that they were afraid of the NRA. He said that. He just leaned across the table and told them and laughed about it. And then had lunch with the NRA himself and went back on everything he wanted to do.”

Popovich also called out Congress and the people around Trump for their relationships with the NRA.

Popovich’s comments came a day after the Spurs made a visit to the U.S. Supreme Court and met with Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justice Sonia Sotomayor, The Washington Post reports.

“I thought it was dope,” guard Brandon Paul told The Post. “My mom, she jokes with me — because I liked to argue when I was younger and make sure there’s justice — that I should try to go to law school.”

Forward Danny Green documented the visit on Instagram, while TMZ caught video of Popovich and Spurs players walking down the Supreme Court’s steps.

This is likely not the last time Popovich uses a moment like a visit to Washington for a civics lesson, nor the last we’ll hear from him on Trump.

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