Trump calls father of freed UCLA player an ‘ungrateful fool’

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump started off his first day of Thanksgiving vacation Wednesday by resuming his taunts of the father of a UCLA basketball player detained for shoplifting in China, calling him an “ungrateful fool.”

In a series of tweets fired off before dawn, the president complained yet again that LaVar Ball, father of LiAngelo Ball, hasn’t given him credit for the release of his son and two other UCLA basketball players after they were accused of shoplifting while in China for a basketball game.

Tweeting from his Florida vacation home, Trump said: “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.”

The president also retweeted a post from Joey Mannarino, a U.S.-born radio host living in London, who echoed the statement: “The ungratefulness is something I’ve never seen before. If you get someone’s son out of prison, he should be grateful to you. Period.”

LiAngelo Ball and two UCLA teammates were released after a brief detention in China while Trump was visiting the country. Trump has taken credit for the release, saying he discussed the situation with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Trump had previously said he should have left all three players in jail because LaVar Ball hadn’t thanked him publicly.