The White House dismissed the irony of Donald Trump stepping in to allow Folarin Balogun to play for the United States despite him being a birthright citizen, a policy Trump vehemently opposes.

“I would say it’s kind of an asinine observation,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said in an interview with NewsNation on Monday, according to The Hill.

“What the president has regularly called out is the fact that birthright citizenship is unfettered. It was meant originally, as the president discussed before, the babies of freed slaves, that they would … have American citizenship and have the rights of Americans, which we fought an entire Civil War to guarantee,” he added.

Balogun was given a red card during the U.S. match with Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 last week. Normally, a red card would have resulted in an automatic one-game suspension so that he would be out for the US’s round of 16 match against Belgium.

But on Sunday, FIFA announced it had delayed Balogun’s suspension for a one-year “probationary period,” allowing him to compete. That decision came after Trump personally reached out to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, asking for a review.

Critics noted that Balogun would not be playing for the United States without birthright citizenship, which Trump is trying to end.

Balogun was born in New York City after his Nigerian mother, who lived in London at the time, could not board a flight back to England because she was too pregnant to travel. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office ending birthright citizenship. The order would have required a baby born on U.S. soil to have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status to gain birthright citizenship, The Hill reported. Balogun’s parents were neither citizens nor permanent legal residents at the time he was born.

The Supreme Court overturned the executive order last week.

Despite Trump’s interference to get Balogun on the pitch for the US’s crucial round of 16 game, the Americans suffered a 4-1 defeat to the Belgians on Monday night.