Rahm Emanuel: The State of the Union was political malpractice

But that fleeting moment of reclamation was followed by a more MAGA-style use of the “U-S-A” chant. Republicans repeated it when Trump condemned Venezuela’s Maduro regime and then declared, “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country”—as network cameras zoomed in on the reaction of Senator Bernie Sanders (whose brand of democratic socialism is a far cry from Maduroism). The cheering support of Trump’s applause line underscored how foreign-policy posturing could be turned into a taunt of domestic political opponents, carrying a not-so-veiled implication of anti-Americanism for the likes of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who don’t view socialism as a dirty word.

The “U-S-A” cheer has evolved over the years. Sporadic mentions of such chanting can be found in press accounts going all the way back to World War I. The earliest examples approximate the “rah rah rah, sis boom bah” style of athletic college yells. Paul Emory Putz, a history lecturer at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, shared an example from the Daily News of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, from June 5, 1918, describing a patriotic rally at the Bethlehem Steel plant. A “most capable cheer leader” led the employees in “the Bethlehem company yell”:

Hooroy, Horray, USA, USA.

Hooroy, Horray, USA, USA.

Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Steel.

Putz also uncovered a mention of a “U-S-A” chant a couple of years later at a more expected venue: the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. During the preliminary events, the Associated Press reported, “Americans in the grand stands and amphitheaters made their presence known by dominating the cheering.” The chant made by Americans in the stands went: “U-S-A, U-S-A, A-M-E-R-I-C-A!” As at Bethlehem Steel, the crowd was egged on by a “cheer leader,” in this case Gustavus T. Kirby, president of the United States Olympic Committee.

Read: How the women of the House flipped the State of the Union speech

“U-S-A” cheers would become a staple at Olympic Games. During track and field events at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Adolf Hitler’s favorite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, captured chants of “U-S-A” in footage for the documentary Olympia. But the cheer really heated up during the Cold War, at international athletic competitions that pitted the United States against the Soviet Union and other Communist states, such as at a baseball game against Cuba at the 1963 Pan American Games. The chant’s Cold War resonance could be heard beyond sports, such as when it was used by students at an anti-government demonstration in Czechoslovakia in 1969 before authorities cracked down.

Czechoslovakia, as it happens, would serve a more prominent role in the chant’s popularization during the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, as the American men’s hockey team staged its improbable run to the gold medal. Team USA’s upset victory over Czechoslovakia in the second round solidified its exciting underdog status, as “U-S-A” was roared over and over again by the home crowd. Those roars grew louder when the Americans knocked off the Soviet powerhouse team in stunning fashion.