Trump Says He Should’ve Left American Citizens in Foreign Jail After Lack of Praise From UCLA Player’s Father

Claims Credit for Release (Again)

The President of the United States advised on Twitter Sunday that he should have left American citizens in a foreign jail.

Donald Trump returned to Twitter to once again claim credit for China’s release of three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting, advising he should have “left them in jail!” after the father of one player was “unaccepting of what [he] did.”

“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,” the president tweeted. “I should have left them in jail!”

LaVar Ball, the father of UCLA player LiAngelo Ball, downplayed Donald Trump’s assistance in the matter when pressed by reporters. “Who?” Ball responded to ESPN. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

ESPN further reported:

“As long as my boy’s back here, I’m fine,” LaVar Ball told ESPN. “I’m happy with how things were handled. 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. My son has built up enough character that one bad decision doesn’t define him. Now if you can go back and say when he was 12 years old he was shoplifting and stealing cars and going wild, then that’s a different thing.

“To President Trump and the United States government,” LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill said in a statement, “thank you for taking the time to intervene on our behalf. We really appreciate you helping us out.”

After the president’s initial tweet on the matter, in which he asked if the three players “will say thank you to President Trump” and falsely claimed they were “headed for 10 years in jail,” Trump also backtracked his involvement in their release in a response to the players’ gratitude.

“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…..,” Trump tweeted, continuing four minutes later. “….your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!”

These sentiments stopped applying, it would seem, following a lack of praise. As Representative Adam Schiff noted:

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