Caitlin Clark clicked the ‘like’ button on Instagram, and in doing so, the WNBA rookie sensation appears to have divided her massive fan base.
The issue began after Tuesday’s presidential debate, when Taylor Swift voiced her support for Vice President Kamala Harris‘ Oval office bid on Instagram while urging her own followers to register to vote.
Clark subsequently hit the ‘heart’ icon under Swift’s post, and has since been dragged by her more conservative followers.
‘You just couldn’t keep your politics out of sports!’ an angry fan wrote on one of Clark’s weeks-old Instagram posts. ‘You have just lost millions of supporters!! #Trump 2024.’
Several responders accused Clark of supporting trans women in female sports.
‘You’re a female athlete!!’ one woman wrote on Instagram. ‘Why would you support a party that are (sic) allowing men to play in women’s sports?’
Others slammed Clark for weighing in on politics at all, even if her comment amounted to a single ‘like’ on Instagram.
‘Just play basketball and build your brand,’ wrote one fan. ‘A brand that the entire country can love. Stay out of politics, your brand will suffer. You are young…ask your close friends and family for advice….’
‘Damn … I became such a big fan,’ another responded. ‘Oh well, back to ignoring the WNBA.’
‘Was just starting to finally pay some attention to the wnba because somebody was actually worth watching, then you caved,’ added another.
One woman more or less described Clark as a heretic for liking Swift’s post: ‘If @caitlinclark22 you’re a Catholic or Christian as you claim? (sic) you’re supposed to follow God’s path and not that of the devil. You’re young, you’ll understand someday. Just know the Dems do not follow or heed the word of God.’
Clark was asked Wednesday why she decided to ‘like’ the post.
Only instead of voicing support for Harris, Clark instead urged fans to do their own research and register to vote.
‘I have this amazing platform, so I think the biggest thing would be just to encourage people to register to vote,’ Clark said when asked if she supported Harris. ‘I think for myself, this is the second time I can vote in an election at age 22. I could vote when I was 18, so I think, do that. That’s the biggest thing I can do with the platform that I have, and that’s the same thing Taylor did.’
And many Clark fans have expressed their pleasure over her decision to do so.
‘Thank you for liking Taylor’s endorsement of Kamala for president,’ one person wrote on Instagram.
‘You gained a new follower,’ another woman wrote. ‘In America women are allowed to have political views… you did nothing wrong… continued success.’
Clark’s apparent preference for Harris is not a complete surprise, given that her boyfriend, Connor McCaffery, has previously penned supportive messages for the Vice President on Instagram.
Several respondents lashed out at Clark’s critics.
‘Already turning on Caitlin for simply liking a post,’ one fan wrote. ‘You were never fans to begin with. Go touch grass.’
‘When chronic twitter loons try to claim someone as one of their own and have it backfire spectacularly,’ another added. ‘Lmao.’
But until now, Clark had not said much publicly about politics, despite becoming a regular topic in conservative media and on partisan cable news channels.
For example, Whitlock and Fox-owned Outkick Sports host podcaster Clay Travis have repeatedly claimed that Clark is the victim of anti-white, anti-Christian and anti-heterosexual biases.
Clark, however, has resisted the public debates.
When asked earlier this summer about becoming a subject in the culture wars, Clark told reporters that she focuses her attention on basketball.
‘It’s not something I can control,’ she told reporters in June. ‘I don’t put too much thought and time into thinking about things like that. To be honest, I don’t see a lot of it.
‘Like I’ve said, basketball’s my job. Everything on the outside, I can’t control that, so I’m not going to spend time thinking about that. People can talk about what they want to talk about, create conversations about whatever it is, but I think for myself.’
Clark’s ‘like’ of Swift’s post follows a similarly consequential move by Brittany Mahomes, Swift’s friend and the quarterback of Chiefs quarterback Patrick.
Last month, Brittany liked a post supporting Trump’s 20-point platform, leading to days of criticism from liberals and support from conservatives.
