Milo Yiannopoulos spoke out against the president on Saturday saying that he disagrees with Trump's statement that athletes who kneel during the national anthem should be fired.

"I don't agree with President Trump on that," Yiannopoulos said in an interview with The Hill. "I don't think that people should be punished for kneeling during the national anthem. I think what should happen to them is they should be laughed at as attention seekers. ... I don't think they deserve to be fired."



ADVERTISEMENT No matter what, "people have to live with the consequences of their actions," he said. "Free speech doesn't mean free from consequences of your speech. Kathy Griffin experienced some of those consequences. ... If a sports team decides that as a family entertainer, an athlete who is alienating all the fans can no longer perform his role on the field, that's their right. But you shouldn't automatically be fired for disrespecting the anthem. You should just be laughed at." He did say that if an athlete manages to alienate enough of a team's fan base with their actions he could see why a team might want to fire them, but he didn't think the act in itself was a fireable offense.

Yiannopoulos is currently in California where he plans to march on the University of California, Berkeley, tomorrow as part of a "rally for free speech." The rally was staged after his four-day headline "Free Speech Week" event was canceled on Saturday morning.

"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. He is fired,' " Trump said.

He then doubled down on his stance Saturday morning when he tweeted , "If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU'RE FIRED. Find something else to do!"

His tweets were met with immediate backlash.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended football players' right to protest in a statement saying, "Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities."