Megan Rapinoe: U.S. Women’s Soccer Star

On the latest (and 400th) episode of Recode Decode, Rapinoe told Kara Swisher that, one World Cup championship trophy later, she’s still not planning to go there, unless she’s being “inaugurated.” She also recalled how she found out about the video’s internet fame, which led President Donald Trump to accuse her of disrespecting her country, exhorting Rapinoe to “WIN first before she TALKS!”



“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, he tweeted you!’” she said. “One of our media people sent me a text ... [and] I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve done something. I’ve done something bad.’ I don’t follow him. And I went on Twitter and looked at it and I was like, ‘This is crazy. I mean, what is going on? This is so insane.’ And we’re like, ‘We’re going to win. So this is not going to age well.’”



“And I was also like, ‘You know what? This is so rude,’” Rapinoe added. “You should be proud, like doing everything you can or not doing anything, right? To make this team successful. People are getting on board. It’s the World Cup. It’s America. You love America. Like, ‘Go USA.’”



As fate would have it, Trump’s attacks on Rapinoe may have actually helped the US women’s team.

“I felt like it actually sort of unified the team,” she said. “Everyone was like, ‘You’re a G, Rapinoe!’ Like, ‘Get him!’ From the back of the bus. So it kind of unified everyone in that way. But I was also like, ‘You’re rude. This is rude.’”