Politics

Trump Continues Attacks On Father Of Basketball Player

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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President Donald Trump used his Twitter platform Sunday to attack the father of a basketball player released from detention in China.

Three University of California, Los Angeles basketball players were released from China last week after being arrested on shoplifting charges. President Trump told reporters that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the incident and took credit for their release.

All three players, LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, thanked Trump at a press conference in the U.S., but Ball’s father Lavar, who is famous for being braggadocios, refused to give the president any credit.

“Who?” LaVar Ball told EPSN Friday when asked about Trump’s efforts to help his son. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

Trump, a braggart and reality show star like Ball, did not take kindly to not getting credit.

“Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “I should have left them in jail!”

He later wrote: “Shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be (5-10 years in jail), but not to father LaVar. Should have gotten his son out during my next trip to China instead. China told them why they were released. Very ungrateful!”