Trump was being “rhetorical” when he said that he should have left the three UCLA basketball players arrested in China in jail, the White House said Monday.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was being “rhetorical” when he said that he should have left the three UCLA basketball players arrested in China in jail, the White House said Monday.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was “happy to intervene” on behalf of the American student athletes detained on suspicion of shoplifting, and that his tweets were “less about the players” and instead focused on one of the players’ father, LaVar Ball.
Ball, a former basketball player, seemed to question Trump’s role in his son’s release in an interview with ESPN on Friday.
“Who? What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out,” Ball said of Trump.
The apparent lack of praise seemed to trigger Trump’s tweets on the issue on Sunday evening. Trump called Ball “very ungrateful” and said he “should have left [the players] in jail! “
Sanders said those tweets were “a rhetorical response” to Ball’s criticisms and that Trump was “happy to see the release of these individuals.
