November 22, 2017

A Day Before Thanksgiving, Trump Slams Father of UCLA Basketball Player as “Ungrateful”

The president can’t seem to quit his feud with LaVar Ball.

Mai/ZUMA

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One day before families across the country gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, President Donald Trump is blasting one man as an “ungrateful fool” because of his refusal to lavish words of appreciation on the president.

Trump on Wednesday intensified his ongoing attacks against LaVar Ball, the father of one of the three UCLA basketball players arrested in China last month, labeling him a “poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair.” 

The newest attack comes after Ball on Friday openly questioned the extent to which Trump played a role in his son’s release, after LiAngelo Ball and two of his UCLA teammates were caught shoplifting. The president has repeatedly claimed that he was crucial in securing Ball’s freedom.

“Who?” Ball responded when ESPN asked about Trump Friday. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

Trump seized on the remarks, suggesting a day later that he should have left the players in jail.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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