A Day Before Thanksgiving, Trump Slams Father of UCLA Basketball Player as “Ungrateful”

The president can’t seem to quit his feud with LaVar Ball.

Mai/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

One day before families across the country gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, President Donald Trump is blasting one man as an “ungrateful fool” because of his refusal to lavish words of appreciation on the president.

Trump on Wednesday intensified his ongoing attacks against LaVar Ball, the father of one of the three UCLA basketball players arrested in China last month, labeling him a “poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair.” 

The newest attack comes after Ball on Friday openly questioned the extent to which Trump played a role in his son’s release, after LiAngelo Ball and two of his UCLA teammates were caught shoplifting. The president has repeatedly claimed that he was crucial in securing Ball’s freedom.

“Who?” Ball responded when ESPN asked about Trump Friday. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

Trump seized on the remarks, suggesting a day later that he should have left the players in jail.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate