A White House photo celebrating a champion womenâs sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.
The University of Georgia womenâs tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent NCAA championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.
The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.
The women standing behind him were, in the back row: Anastasiia Lopata, Mai Nirundorn, Aysegul Mert, Sarah Branicki and Alexandra Vecic; in the middle row: Tatum Buffington, Guillermina Grant, Haley Gaudette and Sofia Rojas; and in the front row: Mell Reasco and Hayden Mulberry.
Dasha Vidmanova, the teamâs star and only the third womenâs tennis player to win an NCAA team, singles and doubles national title in her career, was the lone absentee, unable to make the trip while playing in the Madrid Open qualifying draw.
âA photo is worth a thousand words âŠâ former tennis star Martina Navratilova wrote on X.
âWho approved this photo?â one commenter wrote. âMe when I definitely respect womenâs sports teams: what if we put them behind us so you can barely see them,â another said.
In a video shared by Martin, Trump approaches the group and shakes the hands of the five men, but does not do the same to the women.
The Georgia team shared the photo on its official account later in the day, with the caption: âAn honor to represent the University of Georgia at the White House today! @realDonaldTrump thanks for having us out!â
Georgia, who won the NCAA Division I womenâs tennis championship last May, were among seven teams honored for their titles at the White House this week.
Championship teams across American sports have traditionally received invitations from the president to visit the White House after their victories. Such visits have become fraught during the first and second Trump terms.
Before 2019, no womenâs championship team had made a solo visit to the White House under Trump. Some had participated in events celebrating menâs and womenâs teams. Four of the teams honored at Tuesdayâs event were womenâs sports teams, plus one mixed-gender rifle team.
Earlier this year, the US womenâs hockey team declined an invitation to visit the White House after winning gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics. The team cited scheduling and previous commitments, but the decision came after Trump joked about needing to invite the womenâs team while on a phone call with the gold-winning US menâs team. The menâs team visited the White House and attended the State of the Union as Trumpâs guests.
Hilary Knight, the captain of the womenâs team, later called Trumpâs remark a âdistasteful jokeâ that had overshadowed the Olympic success.
âWeâre just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both menâs and womenâs at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke,â Knight said in February.
The image at Tuesdayâs event drew comparisons to previous instances in which men have dominated photos at events focused on womenâs issues. In 2017, a photo of Trump signing an anti-abortion bill surrounded by eight male staffers in the Oval Office was met with outrage.
Trump in recent weeks has been accused of running a âmisogynistic administrationâ after the departures of three women from a cabinet already dominated by men. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, were fired in the last two months; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, announced on Monday she had stepped down.
Noem and Bondi were both replaced by men in what was already the least diverse cabinet this century.
The University of Georgia womenâs tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent NCAA championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.
The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.
The women standing behind him were, in the back row: Anastasiia Lopata, Mai Nirundorn, Aysegul Mert, Sarah Branicki and Alexandra Vecic; in the middle row: Tatum Buffington, Guillermina Grant, Haley Gaudette and Sofia Rojas; and in the front row: Mell Reasco and Hayden Mulberry.
Dasha Vidmanova, the teamâs star and only the third womenâs tennis player to win an NCAA team, singles and doubles national title in her career, was the lone absentee, unable to make the trip while playing in the Madrid Open qualifying draw.
âA photo is worth a thousand words âŠâ former tennis star Martina Navratilova wrote on X.
âWho approved this photo?â one commenter wrote. âMe when I definitely respect womenâs sports teams: what if we put them behind us so you can barely see them,â another said.
In a video shared by Martin, Trump approaches the group and shakes the hands of the five men, but does not do the same to the women.
The Georgia team shared the photo on its official account later in the day, with the caption: âAn honor to represent the University of Georgia at the White House today! @realDonaldTrump thanks for having us out!â
Georgia, who won the NCAA Division I womenâs tennis championship last May, were among seven teams honored for their titles at the White House this week.
Championship teams across American sports have traditionally received invitations from the president to visit the White House after their victories. Such visits have become fraught during the first and second Trump terms.
Before 2019, no womenâs championship team had made a solo visit to the White House under Trump. Some had participated in events celebrating menâs and womenâs teams. Four of the teams honored at Tuesdayâs event were womenâs sports teams, plus one mixed-gender rifle team.
Earlier this year, the US womenâs hockey team declined an invitation to visit the White House after winning gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics. The team cited scheduling and previous commitments, but the decision came after Trump joked about needing to invite the womenâs team while on a phone call with the gold-winning US menâs team. The menâs team visited the White House and attended the State of the Union as Trumpâs guests.
Hilary Knight, the captain of the womenâs team, later called Trumpâs remark a âdistasteful jokeâ that had overshadowed the Olympic success.
âWeâre just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both menâs and womenâs at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke,â Knight said in February.
The image at Tuesdayâs event drew comparisons to previous instances in which men have dominated photos at events focused on womenâs issues. In 2017, a photo of Trump signing an anti-abortion bill surrounded by eight male staffers in the Oval Office was met with outrage.
Trump in recent weeks has been accused of running a âmisogynistic administrationâ after the departures of three women from a cabinet already dominated by men. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, were fired in the last two months; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, announced on Monday she had stepped down.
Noem and Bondi were both replaced by men in what was already the least diverse cabinet this century.
