President Trump said Sunday that he wouldn’t encourage his 12-year-old son Barron to play a “dangerous sport” like football because of the risk of concussions.
In a wide ranging pre-Super Bowl interview with CBS, Trump said that his son prefers to play soccer.
“It’s [a] very tough question,” Trump said. “It’s a very good question. If he wanted to? Yes. Would I steer him that way? No, I wouldn’t.”
“I just don’t like the reports that I see coming out having to do with football. I mean, it’s a dangerous sport and I think it’s- I- it’s- really tough. I thought the equipment would get better, and it has,” he explained. “The helmets have gotten far better but it hasn’t solved the problem. So, you know I- I hate to say it because I love to watch football.”
The president said that many people, “thought soccer would probably never make it in this country, but it really is moving forward rapidly.”
Trump also weighed in on his longstanding feud with NFL players over kneeling during the national anthem. He has called for NFL players to be fired if they kneeled during the playing of the anthem after former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the 2016 preseason.
“You can’t be kneeling for the national anthem. You have to respect our flag and our country. I want that as president and I’d want that as a citizen,” Trump told CBS’s Margaret Brennan. “But they haven’t been kneeling and they have been respecting the flag and their ratings have been terrific ever since. And a lot of good things happened.”
The interview, which aired on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, will also air during the network’s Super Bowl pregame coverage at 3:30 p.m.