It’s nearly Thanksgiving and President Donald Trump is tweeting about gratitude.
Or, a lack thereof.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump called the father of a UCLA basketball player who shoplifted and was arrested while in China earlier this month an “ungrateful fool!” and said “IT WAS ME” who helped get his son home safely.
The President called LaVar Ball, the father of UCLA Bruins player LiAngelo Ball, “just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair.” Trump said LaVar Ball “could have spent the next five to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you.”
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
Trump has been vocal about his expectations of gratitude from the basketball players ever since they were released from detainment. When the players were en route back to the U.S. Trump asked on Twitter whether they would thank him for helping negotiate their release. All three players thanked the President at a press conference when they returned.
Trump responded with a poetic tweet, in which he told the players “you’re welcome,” guided them to thank Chinese President Xi Jinping and told all three to “HAVE A GREAT LIFE!”
To the three UCLA basketball players I say: You're welcome, go out and give a big Thank You to President Xi Jinping of China who made…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017
….your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017
LaVar Ball, the chief executive of the sports apparel company Big Baller Brand, has refused to thank Trump for intervening to help get his son home. In an interview with ESPN on Friday he said that “everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out,” referring to Trump. He told CNN on Monday that he would give praise if it were due.
“How’d he help? If he helped, I would say thank you,” he said.
That didn’t sit well with the President, who has said he spoke with Xi during one of their meetings in Beijing about the UCLA players’ detainment. He tweeted over the weekend that he “should have left them in jail!” and claimed shop lifting is “a very big deal in China, as it should be (five to 10 years in jail).”
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. I should have left them in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
President Pettypants
strikestweets again. Already bored on his vacay at his self-enrichment Thanksgiving retreat at Maralago.OT, but there is this…
It’ll be strange going back to a traditional President when this rude, embarrassing monstrosity is gone.
“I should have left them in their Hyatt Regency awaiting administrative deferment” just doesn’t have the same ring as an all caps it-was-me, does it?
Oh, but he can’t be. He already tweeted he would be having meetings and “working the phones” at the “Winter White House” and the stock market was at Record Highs and the military was building up and getting strong and many companies are coming back to the U.S. He didn’t say it but the clear implication was that if you thought he was a total lazy-ass loser and buffoon who sucks you’d be wrong.