The Daily Populous Friday April 24th, 2026 night edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by WontThinkStraight

A White House photo celebrating a champion women’s sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.

The University of Georgia women’s tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent NCAA championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.

The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.

The women standing behind him were, in the back row: Anastasiia Lopata, Mai Nirundorn, Aysegul Mert, Sarah Branicki and Alexandra Vecic; in the middle row: Tatum Buffington, Guillermina Grant, Haley Gaudette and Sofia Rojas; and in the front row: Mell Reasco and Hayden Mulberry.

Dasha Vidmanova, the team’s star and only the third women’s tennis player to win an NCAA team, singles and doubles national title in her career, was the lone absentee, unable to make the trip while playing in the Madrid Open qualifying draw.

“A photo is worth a thousand words …” former tennis star Martina Navratilova wrote on X.

“Who approved this photo?” one commenter wrote. “Me when I definitely respect women’s sports teams: what if we put them behind us so you can barely see them,” another said.

In a video shared by Martin, Trump approaches the group and shakes the hands of the five men, but does not do the same to the women.

The Georgia team shared the photo on its official account later in the day, with the caption: “An honor to represent the University of Georgia at the White House today! @realDonaldTrump thanks for having us out!”

Georgia, who won the NCAA Division I women’s tennis championship last May, were among seven teams honored for their titles at the White House this week.

Championship teams across American sports have traditionally received invitations from the president to visit the White House after their victories. Such visits have become fraught during the first and second Trump terms.

Before 2019, no women’s championship team had made a solo visit to the White House under Trump. Some had participated in events celebrating men’s and women’s teams. Four of the teams honored at Tuesday’s event were women’s sports teams, plus one mixed-gender rifle team.

Earlier this year, the US women’s hockey team declined an invitation to visit the White House after winning gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics. The team cited scheduling and previous commitments, but the decision came after Trump joked about needing to invite the women’s team while on a phone call with the gold-winning US men’s team. The men’s team visited the White House and attended the State of the Union as Trump’s guests.

Hilary Knight, the captain of the women’s team, later called Trump’s remark a “distasteful joke” that had overshadowed the Olympic success.

“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke,” Knight said in February.

The image at Tuesday’s event drew comparisons to previous instances in which men have dominated photos at events focused on women’s issues. In 2017, a photo of Trump signing an anti-abortion bill surrounded by eight male staffers in the Oval Office was met with outrage.

View image in fullscreen Reince Priebus, Peter Navarro, Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon watch as Donald Trump signs the executive orders in the Oval Office, 23 January 2017. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Trump in recent weeks has been accused of running a “misogynistic administration” after the departures of three women from a cabinet already dominated by men. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, were fired in the last two months; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, announced on Monday she had stepped down.

Noem and Bondi were both replaced by men in what was already the least diverse cabinet this century.

Wild_Read9062 on April 23rd, 2026 at 14:10 UTC »

The funny thing is, these men have no idea what assholes they are.

Apprehensive_Idea758 on April 23rd, 2026 at 14:09 UTC »

Trump’s nothing but a narcissist and misogynistic pig who has never shown any respect for women and unfortunately that’s never going to change.

biscuitarse on April 23rd, 2026 at 14:02 UTC »

Man, you can't even get your promised 15 minutes of fame anymore without Trump co-opting the moment and pushing you to the background. Sheeesh.