Trump Took Full Credit for Freeing 3 UCLA Players From China – Turns Out He Had Nothing to Do With Their Release

‘I Should Have Left Them in Jail!’ Tweeted Trump, Feeling He Hadn’t Been Given Sufficient Thanks 

A new report from ESPN finds that while President Donald Trump took total credit for the release of three UCLA basketball players held by China last November, by the time he and the White House were involved they had already been released days earlier.

Freshmen players LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill, and Cody Riley were arrested for shoplifting sunglasses in early November. But the “charges were dropped, the bail refunded and the players’ passports [were] returned two days before White House chief of staff John Kelly called the players to inform them that President Donald Trump was working on their release,” ESPN reports.

That’s a far different story than President Trump told. Aboard Air Force One Trump bragged about speaking with the president of China and went as far as to say the three players were “very grateful” to him for intervening. He also lied, both on the plane and later via Twitter, about China’s laws, claiming stealing sunglasses would have left them with stiff prison sentences had they been prosecuted.

“The situation was already resolved by the time we heard about Trump’s involvement,” a UCLA team source told ESPN. “That’s not to take away from the fact that he got involved, but the players already had their passports back and their flights booked to go home Tuesday night when Gen. Kelly called the players.”

Trump, feeling that he wasn’t getting sufficient gratitude from the students and from LaVar Ball, LiAndro’s father. So Trump decided to go head-to-head with LaVar ball and the players, by waging a Twitter war:

He also did his best to take credit a few days later, tweeting, “IT WAS ME” who got the players released, which, it turns out, was false.

He even called LiAngelo‘s father LaVar an “Ungrateful fool!”

Before their press conference, during which LiAngelo was told he had to thank the president and did, Trump tweeted, “Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!”

That false claim, again, that they were headed for lengthy prison sentences, was a lie.

Here’s the press conference including LiAngelo Ball thanking President Trump.

“There are no real winners here,” ThinkProgress notes, “but considering how well Trump reacted to Ball last year, it’s unlikely the President will be issuing any apologies, or showing any support for the Big Baller Brand any time soon.”