Saquon Barkley was pictured with Donald Trump at one of the President’s golf courses this past weekend, leading to a lot of political hemming and hawing in the replies of various social media posts. Saquon’s response:

The thing is that you can’t win. It’s like a political Pandora’s Box once the lid is even slightly ajar. You can say you respect the office and talk about golfing with a Democrat as well as a Republican, but people will jump to their own conclusions and make their own decisions regardless. They’ll say that Trump doesn’t respect the office and that there’s no neutral stance to be taken here. We’re living in an era when the lines in the sand have never been harder or more defined.

Not to get too political, since this is not a political blog, but throughout the years we’ve seen plenty of conservative athletes go to the Obama and Biden White Houses, while progressive pro athletes went to see George W. Bush. The reason nobody made a big deal about any of this back then is because even if there was a difference of opinion, those Presidents weren’t half as volatile or controversial as Trump has been. They carried themselves with more decorum, which isn’t even a hot take, it’s something we’d probably all agree on. They weren’t liable to fly off the handle with statements about social justice or race relations or other intersectional sports topics. Trump is just a different type of President entirely, in a time when the country has never been more divided, which is why so many people simply don’t recognize or accept the middle-ground stance of “we’re simply going to the White House to be recognized in a non-political setting.”

Funny enough, and I’m not sure if you caught this, but I noticed that when Jeffrey Lurie and some others in the organization talked about the visit, they didn’t actually mention Trump by name or even say “President.” The language has been focused on “White House,” maybe by design, because when you do that it takes the focus off a lightning rod of an individual and makes the visit more about the long-standing institution and the office itself, which inherently is apolitical.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. Saquon would like these people to get out of his mentions and have a great day. The Birds visit the White House at 4 p.m. today and we’ll see what happens.