Donald Trump To LaVar Ball: You’re An ‘Ungrateful Fool’
Nov 22, 2017, 12:00 AM | Updated: Jan 4, 2019, 11:21 am
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Last week LiAngelo Ball and other two other UCLA basketball players were being held in China for shoplifting accusations. The players ended up getting released and returning to the United States on November 14.
Donald Trump made it apparent that he was on the phone with China’s President Xi Jinping earlier that day, then hours later the UCLA players were released and allowed to return to the U.S.
It wasn’t proven if Trump helped in playing a role in the release of the three players, but LiAngelo issued a thank you to Trump in an interview when he was apologizing for his actions back in China.
On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump went to Twitter to criticize the Ball family and take credit for getting LiAngelo back to the United States.
It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence – IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017
…LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017
According to Bleacher Report, LaVar Ball questioned what role Trump had on LiAngelo’s release in an interview he had on Monday:
“Did he help the boys get out? I don’t know. … If I was going to thank somebody I’d probably thank [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping]. … It wasn’t like he was in the U.S. and said, ‘OK, there’s three kids in China. I need to go over and get them.’ That wasn’t the thought process. I say thank you when I see something. If you help, you shouldn’t have to say anything. Let him do his political affairs and let me handle my son and let’s just stay in our lane.”
