President Trump opted not to take a side in the debate over whether female soccer players should be paid as much as their male peers.
“I think a lot of it also has to do with the economics,” Trump said in an interview with The Hill on Monday. “I mean who draws more, where is the money coming in. I know that when you have the great stars like [Portugal’s Cristiano] Ronaldo and some of these stars … that get paid a lot of money, but they draw hundreds of thousands of people.
“But I haven’t taken a position on that at all,” he added. “I’d have to look at it.”
A report by the Wall Street Journal this month highlighted that US women’s soccer games generated nearly $1 million more in revenue than men’s from 2016 to 2018. The US women also won the World Cup in 1991, 1999 and 2015, while the men have never won the tournament and failed to even qualify for the 2018 event.
All 28 members of the US women’s national team sued the nation’s soccer federation over pay inequality in March, and they recently agreed to mediation, which could signal a resolution in the near future.
The US women advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2019 Women’s World Cup with a 2-1 win over Spain on Monday, and they have outscored their opponents 20-1 through four games. If they were to win the championship again this year, it would further strengthen their argument for equal pay.
Their next match is against France on Friday.
