President Donald Trump turned to Twitter on Sunday, November 19, to share his heated thoughts and exclamation point with his followers about LiAngelo Ball, his dad LaVar Ball, along with Cody Riley and Jalen Hill. As reported by the Independent , Trump wrote that he should have allowed the three University of Southern California (UCLA) basketball players to remain in jail in China, instead of helping the trio get out of trouble after a shoplifting incident.
As seen in the below tweet from Trump’s verified Twitter account, Trump wrote that in the wake of the three basketball players returning home from China — being “saved from years in jail” — LiAngelo’s dad LaVar would not accept what Trump allegedly did for the young men. As a result Trump wrote that LaVar must think “shoplifting is no big deal,” and that Trump should have left the young men in jail in China.
The melee stems from an incident that occurred earlier in November, when LiAngelo, Cody, and Jalen were placed under arrest and suspected of shoplifting sunglasses. The alleged theft happened prior to the UCLA season opener game in Shanghai. After the three men were left in China whilst their teammates returned to the U.S., the trio ended up being released after the incident was “resolved to the satisfaction of the Chinese authorities.”
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!
As reported by USA Today , Lavar questioned just how much President Trump helped get the young men out of trouble.
“Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out. Who? What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out…. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told him, ‘They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.’ I’m from L.A. I’ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses.’”
LaVar Ball [Image by Mike Stobe/Getty Images]
After those comments hit the press, Trump hit back with his Sunday comments about leaving the young men in jail, after President Trump had previously tweeted that the trio was “headed for 10 years in jail!” Trump had already turned to Twitter to ask his followers if they believed the three athletes would thank him for his help.
“Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump?”
Each of the basketball players did end up thanking President Trump in a press conference for his help, after they returned to the U.S.
“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 your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!”
After their statement thanking Trump, he followed up with another tweet providing life advice to the three young basketball players. However, it seems that LaVar’s words have set Trump on a Twitter rampage that has left the name LaVar Ball as a top trending item with nearly 40,000 tweets coming into Twitter regarding Ball thus far.
Trump’s tweet is being met with comments like those below, with folks claiming that Trump’s hypocrisy is on full display — writing that Trump would be the one in jail eventually.
“Well money laundering, conspiracy & perjury are way bigger than shoplifting. We know you don’t appreciate anything. So we’ll be happy to just leave you (& several family members & associates) in jail.”
[Featured Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images]
