President Donald Trump issued a strange offer Monday to Australian leadership proposing that the United States give refuge to the Iranian women’s soccer team following their participation in the Asian Cup that's being held in that nation.
Ahead of their match against South Korea last week, the Iranian women’s soccer team “declined to sing the national anthem,” BBC reported Monday, prompting fierce criticism from Iranian commentators — including one who called the team “wartime traitors,” the outlet reported.
Now that the Iranian women’s soccer team is poised to return home, Trump is instead offering them refuge in the United States, along with a demand to Australian leadership.
Last year, Trump halted all refugees from entering the U.S. except for white South Africans. But, on Monday, he signaled he would make an exception.
“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t. Thank you for your attention to this matter"