I clenched my fists and shook them… Even sports stars are fascinated by the ‘Trump dance’

American sports stars dance at Trump dance ceremony
Celebrate by clenching your fists and shaking your body here and there
President-elect Trump dances for 30 minutes during campaign rally

The so-called ‘Trump dance’, which involves clenching one’s fists and shaking one’s body back and forth, is becoming popular among American sports stars. There is an analysis that public support for US President-elect Donald Trump is continuing. On the 18th (local time), the New York Times (NYT) reported, “Five American professional football (NFL) players, including Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders, celebrated scoring a goal by doing President-elect Trump’s dance in the previous day’s game.”

Previously, mixed martial arts UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones first performed the Trump dance after successfully making his first defense by defeating Stipe Miocic in a match on the 16th. At the time, President-elect Trump was at Madison Square Garden in New York where the UFC match was held with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and others, and even smiled when he saw Jones imitating him. Jones was also shown handing the UFC championship belt to President-elect Trump. “I thought that (Trump dance) was cool,” Bowers said, referring to Jones in a postgame interview.

Former President Donald Trump shows off his unique dance moves on stage at a rally held in Asheboro, North Carolina on August 21 (local time). Yonhap News

President-elect Trump’s ‘Trump Dance’ is characterized by keeping the upper body stiff and only holding out both arms. Last month, when an emergency occurred during an election campaign in Pennsylvania where attendees collapsed, President-elect Trump suggested, “Let’s not answer any more questions and just listen to music,” and sang “YMCA” by the Village People and “Hallelujah” by Rufus Wainwright for about 30 minutes. They shook their bodies and sang along to 9 election campaign songs.

The ‘Trump dance’ was initially considered a laughing stock as the image of physical prowess was emphasized rather than actually a dance. However, now that he has become the elected president, the Trump dance is spreading, centering on sports stars who support him, attracting attention.

NYT said, “It is far from the complexity of Michael Jackson’s iconic ‘moonwalk’ or the Macarena dance that took the world by storm in the mid-1990s,” adding, “His dance, which is simple yet strangely eye-catching, can be seen by wedding guests with no rhythm or clumsiness. It is reminiscent of the stiff movements of drunken event attendees. He expressed, “The movement of the bent arms and clenched fists feels like an homage to the drunk character in the movie ‘Old School.’”

Reporter Kim Seong-wook [email protected]