Every American woman should view this photo before they ever vote again. Men should view it too.

University of Georgia NCAA championship women’s tennis team in the background

Worth a thousand words’: Trump photo obscuring women’s tennis team sparks backlash

Guardian
Thu 23 Apr 2026

A White House photo celebrating a champion women’s sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.

The University of Georgia women’s tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.

The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.

Georgia won the NCAA women’s tennis championship last May.

“A photo is worth a thousand words …” former tennis star Martina Navratilova wrote on X.

Martina Navratilova is right. This official minimizing of all women, including women of proven excellence, says so much about the view of the president, those around him, those who support him, many Republicans (some of whom see a biblical basis for this second-tier status), and some number of Americans.

Apparently, nobody, whether on the president’s staff or among the University of Georgia important men, was willing to suggest that maybe the actual winners deserved to be featured out front and to be individually greeted, just as the important men were.

A country like the U.S. that can’t officially establish legal equal rights for women, including something as simple and fair as equal pay for equal work, obviously has powerful people who don’t believe in that equality.

Next time you vote, ask every candidate what they think of this picture. It isn’t everything, but it is a good test. Take their response as one of many guides to the way they see the world, and if you are a woman, the way they see you.