What once would have been dismissed as an “only in 2017” fever dream is now very real: Donald Trump and LaVar Ball are fighting, and the president is going out of his way to tweet about Ball before most of the country wakes up and starts their day.
Trump continued to tweet about Ball and his son LiAngelo on Wednesday, calling the Big Baller Brand patriarch an “ungrateful fool” in a series of tweets that continue the narrative of the most on-brand thing to have happened in this, the longest year on record.
Trump also called Ball a “poor man’s Don King, but without the hair” continuing an attack on Ball that started after UCLA freshman LiAngelo Ball was arrested in China earlier this month. Trump made it clear he wants credit for helping get Ball and two other UCLA freshman — Cody Riley and Jalen Hill — out of trouble after a shoplifting incident overseas while the Bruins were overseas.
Now, Trump says it’s “Too bad!” that he helped Ball’s son out.
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
“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,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think.”
Though LiAngelo specifically thanked the president for his help after Trump openly wondered if he would get thanks for his help on Twitter, LaVar Ball’s response to the president was clearly not satisfactory and his refusal to thank him is clearly getting to the leader of the free world.
Trump’s second tweet is a bit confusing, implying the Ball family or maybe LaVar himself would have to celebrate Thanksgiving in a Chinese prison visiting LiAngelo for up to a decade without Trump’s help.
…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 soon moved on to readdress national anthem protests in the NFL before retweeting a response to his tweet claiming that they would thank Hillary Clinton’s “corrupt ass” if she were president and somehow helped that person’s son get released from a Chinese prison.
https://twitter.com/Realjmannarino/status/933280770403241984
The strange feud has seemed a bit too on-the-nose to be real, but here we are. It’s even gotten LaVar Burton some hate in the process, as confused Trump supporters attacked the Reading Rainbow star on Twitter mistaking him for basketball’s loudest father. There’s really no telling where things will go next, really.
What’s clear now, though, is that LaVar Ball will get a chance to respond to these new tweets, which will inevitably be covered by Fox News on Fox and Friends. Trump will see the segment, tweet some more and we’ll truly never escape the international incident that’s becoming a national nightmare.
