U.S. soccer player Megan Rapinoe doesn’t get how her dad voted for Donald Trump, watches Fox News and still supports her

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe said her father voted for President Donald Trump and she’s often perplexed by her family’s conservative views while at the same time supporting her.

Trump went on a Twitter tirade back in July when he discovered Rapinoe said in a prior interview that she wouldn’t visit the White House because she feels the president has jeopardized her belief system. Rapinoe was the main catalyst for the U.S. women’s soccer team winning the World Cup later that month, and on the victory tour was openly critical of the Trump administration.

In an interview with The Guardian over the weekend, Rapinoe said: “I think my dad voted for Trump and I’ll say: ‘I don’t get it. How are you simultaneously as proud as punch of me and watching Fox News all the time, (when commentators are doing) takedowns of your daughter?’ That’s why I’m like, ‘You guys need to go to therapy.’”

Rapinoe said the stances of her family — including her mother Denise — often confuse her because she believes the equality she fights for now in the LGBT community and elsewhere came as a result of her upbringing.

“I feel like I grew up with all of these lessons (surrounding equality), but nothing was ever spoken,” Rapinoe said. “No language was ever put around it. Both of my parents should be really progressive – especially my mom – and I don’t get that they’re not. I’m always saying: ‘You guys should really be Democrats!’ But they’re not, so what’s happening?”

Rapinoe, who also cites her twin sister Rachael and older brother Brian as inspirations for her vocalizing her views, said that the family dialogue at gatherings has always been interesting.

“There’s been some major blow-ups,” she said. ”There’s definitely been some dust-ups. I’m very close to my family. It’s not like, ‘Ugh, I’m from a conservative town, and I never talk to them anymore.’ I talk to my parents all the time, every day. And I feel like I have seen progress and growth. I would love it if people understood you should never say racist things and (you should) be okay with gay people, or whatever it is. But, obviously, it doesn’t happen that quickly.”

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