President Donald Trump, who personally intervened with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the release of three American basketball players after their recent arrest for shoplifting, now feels he “should have left them in jail” over there.
What got Trump’s goat days after the players were let off by Chinese authorities was a comment by the father of one of the players, downplaying the US President’s role in securing the release of the three players – all from UCLA (University of California Los Angeles).
That prompted Trump to fire back on Twitter on Sunday, tweeting: “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!”
“Shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be (5-10 years in jail), but not to father LaVar,” he said in a follow-up tweet hours later, remarking: “Should have gotten his son out during my next trip to China instead. China told them why they were released. Very ungrateful!”
The incident, in which the three players were alleged to have stolen sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store and goods from two other stores in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, happened when Trump himself was in Beijing as part of his recent 13-day Asia visit.
The players themselves had publicly apologized last Wednesday for their conduct and thanked President Trump and the US Government for their help. Trump, in turn, had told the players to thank President Xi for helping to resolve the case.
But LiAngelo’s father struck a different tune on Friday. Speaking to ESPN, he said the incident involving his son and the other two UCLA players was being blown out of proportion. When asked specifically about the role played by President Trump in the release, he shot back: “Who? What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
“They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes. I’m from LA,” LaVar Ball said, adding: “I’ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses.”
Soon after the release of the three players following his intervention, Trump had teasingly tweeted: “Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!”
Trump’s tweetstorm on the subject came under attack from Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff from California. “The President would have left American students in a foreign jail because their families didn’t lavish sufficient praise on him. How can someone in such a big office be so small?” Schiff tweeted.