It hasn’t been the most uncontroversial presidency so far for Donald Trump, and Sunday he started his most controversial debate yet.

Trump was in Alabama on Friday for a senatorial campaign, where he said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘Get that son of a b**** off the field right now, out, he’s fired!’”

Trump reiterated his distaste for players expressing their views by kneeling during the anthem in a pair of tweets sent out on Sunday morning.

In response, a large number of NFL players, and in two cases complete teams, knelt during the national anthem on Sunday.

For Iowa State soccer coach and former marine, Tony Minatta, it’s a topic that hit home.

“I fought for this country and I put my life on the line so that we can have the freedoms that people are exercising right now,” Minatta said.

Minatta served in the United States Marine Corps for four years from 1993-1996.

“Do I necessarily agree with the forum that they’re taking and how they’re doing it?” Minatta said. “That’s not for me to give my opinion on. I do believe that we have the right to exercise our freedoms and that’s what I fought for.”

Minatta also received a Medal of Honor for his overseas deployment in 1996.

“No, [I would never sit for the anthem],” Minatta said. “I haven’t gone through what they’ve gone through. I have a different outlook on the ways I would do things, but that’s an opinion for another day.”

Minatta also avoids the subject when it comes to him.

“I really haven’t paid too much attention to it, when it comes on I just turn the channel,” Minatta said.

The coach has been focusing more on soccer.

The Cyclones are entering Big 12 play with a plethora of injuries. Of the 28 players they had coming into the year, almost one third of the team has been sidelined with injuries.

“My main focus is getting our players ready to play for Friday night,” Minatta said.