Trump in his own strange way is trying to use the flag to change his image. Well it's not working. He's using the racist attitude of some in his base to publicly shame black athletes in order to change the negative narrative about how disastrous his leadership has been concerning the people of Puerto Rica, all of whom are American citizens, and people of color. His disdain for people of color is documented, but people in his base look the other way, thus encouraging him to continue his bigoted behavior.