First Lady & the Champ
After Don insult tweet
Melania’s on Team LeBron. Hours after her husband launched a full-court press on Twitter against basketball superstar LeBron James, the first lady issued a statement that seemed to side with the outspoken athlete.
“It looks like LeBron James is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation,” her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told The Hill.
“Just as she always has, the first lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today.”
Melania Trump’s Be Best campaign, which she launched in May with a focus on child well-being, incorporates cyberbullying prevention efforts — ironic, critics say, given her husband’s Twitter proclivities.
Her statement did not directly address the president’s latest late-night social-media broadside, issued at 11:37 p.m. Friday, which called James’ intelligence into question.
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” the president tweeted. “He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”
The final sentence appeared to be a reference to Michael Jordan, who starred in a Gatorade ad campaign in the 1990s with the tag line “Be Like Mike.”
Jordan refused the compliment Saturday. “I support LeBron James,” he said through a spokesman. “He’s doing an amazing job for his community.”
Later Saturday, Hillary Clinton joined Team LeBron with this tweet:
“@KingJames is a great family man, incredible ballplayer, gives back to his community, and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He’s a world class at athlete and a class act. We need more like him in this world.”
In an appearance last Monday on CNN, James (left) criticized Trump, saying the president has “kind of used sports to kind of divide us, and that’s something that I can’t relate to . . . I can’t sit back and say nothing.”
James, last week opened a public elementary school for at-risk students in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Melania’s pro-LeBron message was the latest indication she might not be seeing eye-to-eye with her spouse.
Last month, according to reports, Trump exploded aboard Air Force One when he caught his wife watching CNN, despite his regular diatribes against the network as a purveyor of “fake news.”
Trump “caused a bit of a stir,” according to internal White House memos obtained by The New York Times, and ordered that only Fox News be shown on the presidential plane.