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Posted: 2017-09-24T22:00:38Z | Updated: 2017-09-25T22:27:12Z

President Donald Trump insists his criticism of National Football League players who kneel during renditions of the national anthem a means of protesting police brutality across the country is not racial in nature.

The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race, he said in a tweet on Monday. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!

His comment echoes a similar remark he made the previous day.

This has nothing to do with race. Ive never said anything about race, Trump told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Sunday.

I think the owners should do something about it. Its very disrespectful to our flag and our country, he added.

In a Friday speech in Alabama, Trump called NFL players who kneel sons of bitches, and then doubled down on his criticism in a series of follow-up posts on Twitter.

Following the example of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, NFL players around the country have taken to kneeling during the national anthem as a way to demonstrate against police brutality and racial injustice directed towards black Americans.

More than a hundred NFL players from several football teams kneeled or held arms in solidarity during Sundays opening ceremonies. Trump again weighed in on Twitter, expressing his disapproval with those who knelt.

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Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings! he wrote.

Over the weekend, Trump blasted several African-American sports figures in the NFL and the NBA, including Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

Some, like Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, shot back by calling Trump a bum .