Attacks on athletes from familiar page in Trump playbook
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry struck a hopeful note Friday when he explained why he wouldn't be accepting an invitation to visit President Donald Trump at the White House.
"Hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country," Curry said, as others on his championship team considered whether to accept.
"I don't think us not going to White House is going to miraculously make everything better," he said. But, "this is my opportunity to voice that."
Except, Curry didn't even get the chance to not go to the White House. In a tweet the morning after his comments, Trump summarily uninvited the guard and his entire team.
Trump's tweet: “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!”
This puzzled some people — like LeBron James, who wrote to the president: "U bum @ StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite."
But if James has been paying attention, he might notice that Trump has developed a habit of preemptively scuttling projects that were already circling the drain.
The CEO Council
Curry has never been a Trump fan. Months ago, when he learned that Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank had called the new president a "real asset," the basketball player quipped to CNBC: "I agree with that description — if you remove the 'et' "
But by mid-August, Plank had become one of several business advisers who resigned from the president's American Manufacturing Council in the wake of Trump's infamous comments comparing violent white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville to protesters that opposed them.
"Earlier today I called on all leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich wrote. "I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them."
The council looked headed toward collapse as other executives followed suit. At first Trump lashed out at defectors and vowed to replace them.
The president tweeted: “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!”
Then one day later, he pulled the plug himself.
"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum. I am ending both," Trump wrote.
The Kennedy Center
Trump also has a habit of removing himself from events he senses he won't be welcome at.
As in the business world, his belated condemnation of hate groups at the Charlottesville, Virginia, rally caused a backlash in the arts community in August.
Three of the Kennedy Center gala's five honorees — television producer Norman Lear, singer Lionel Richie and dancer Carmen de Lavallade — indicated that they would or could boycott the White House reception in December, where the president traditionally offers kind words to each.
But Trump preempted any boycotts when the White House released a statement in August saying he and the first lady would not attend the Kennedy Center Honors "to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction."
The White House reception would also be canceled for the first time in the awards' history, the Kennedy Center announced afterward.
Kennedy Center officials said in a statement that they were "grateful" for Trump's gesture.
"In choosing not to participate in this year's Honors activities, the Administration has graciously signaled its respect for the Kennedy Center and ensures the Honors gala remains a deservingly special moment for the Honorees," the statement read.
The White House Correspondents' Dinner
His early decision to forego the Kennedy Center Honors was reminiscent of his abrupt Twitter announcement in February that he would not attend the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said then on ABCs "This Week" it would be "naive" for Trump to go to the dinner, as most presidents in recent history had done, after a campaign in which he had frequently clashed with the media.
"You know, one of the things we say in the South [is], 'If a Girl Scout egged your house, would you buy cookies from her?' I think that this is a pretty similar scenario," Sanders added. "There's no reason for him to go in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another Saturday night."
Nevertheless, the dinner took place as scheduled. Trump ended up holding a rally in Pennsylvania the same night, where he appealed to his base and emphasized the size of his crowd.
"I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from the Washington swamp spending my evening with all of you and with a much, much larger crowd, and much better people," Trump said.
Amy B Wang is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. Avi Selk is an American- Canadian nomad. He reported for the Dallas Morning News from 2009 until December 2016, when he joined the general assignment desk.