Bolded: What does the national anthem represent? Tell me, if it's not America, who does it represent? That's the concept of the nation. Just like the flag. In Norway we have the national anthem "Ja vi elsker" which starts with "Yes, we love this country" and the flag that symbolizes so much about Norway as a nation. You can protest the nation itself, or specific symbols. And it's okay to do that, as long as you commit to it. Say America as a nation is a lie and that it's not something one should honor and the nationalism as bad, or that the song is bad because of something. It's not a bad thing to take the position, but not committing to the symbolism of the protest is just weak. The NBA protests were great and stayed on message (police brutality). Kneeling before the national anthem is one of the weirdest thing to do, even if you commit to it, as kneeling is a gesture of submission. I mean, a simple gaffa tape over your mouth could accomplish much more symbolically.
Italic: Asking the question "why are you here, if you don't like the country?" (the country as a nation) through rhetorical means, which is how I interpreted Trumps "You should stand for the national anthem, if you don't maybe you shouldn't be playing, maybe you shouldn't be in the country". The game is American football and the second part implying "if it's so bad, why are you here?". As I said, the NBA shirt protest was great, emotional and impactful, Kaepernick's protest just made people care about the kneeling and the optics, instead of the message.
I don't really care what his followers repeat in their echo-chambers, though I am concerned that Trump might evolve it further and really step over the line. If people start increasingly physically attack people and try to force people to stand for the national anthem, then it's on Trump to deal with it. Was it because of what he said? Then he needs to call out those who do it, apologize if something was unclear and reaffirm that people are allowed to not stand for the national anthem (but private companies can have code of conduct for ceremonies/rituals, which they can fine you under the terms of your contract), even if one should ("should" isn't an imperative). Taking a normative position isn't something controversial in this, I'd say (as a lot of people have), and since there's no imperative in his talk, I just can't commit to outraging too much about those phrases.
I'm more concerned about how divisive and asshole-ish the responses were, especially on twitter, like Pence's ridiculous "#winning".
I hope the NFL players get to renegotiate some means of showing protest outside of the anthem as I believe in the concept of free speech (in the sense we should letting people express themselves), though I'm unsure what terms there are in regards to protesting before and after the national anthem. Are they not allowed to temporarily wear shirts or other things? I feel like people become so obsessed about the kneeling and staying on each polarized end in the case, that they didn't try to compromise on better solutions.