Caitlin Clark never asked to become a political symbol. Trump’s allies have chosen her anyway

A congressional threat to bring the DoJ into the WNBA pushes Caitlin Clark into a role she has long tried to avoid: the central figure in America’s latest sports culture war

As part of its ongoing belief that the rights of white people are in peril and require government protection, the White House earlier this week released a 162-page report accusing the National Museum of American History of engaging in “anti-White activism”, declaring that exhibits at the various Smithsonian museums were prepared by “people who don’t want you to love your country”. Two days later, a group of nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers led by Texas representative August Pfluger threatened to send the Department of Justice after the WNBA unless it makes itself “accountable” for presumably not protecting embattled Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark against the physicality of game’s Black players. Pfluger implied hard fouls against Clark “may be racially motivated”, and threatened a civil rights lawsuit against the WNBA on Clark’s behalf could be an option.

The Pfluger letter represents the third time in less than a month the Trump administration and its loyalists have interfered in sports, twice using it as a front in its ongoing culture war, putting the Justice Department on high alert against anything it considers to be anti-white, anti-straight, anti-Christian. Enlisting Clark is pitting her against her own teammates and the culture of her league, but maybe the government believes she’s already there.

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