Melania Trump praises LeBron James in statement after husband insults him
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Shortly after Donald Trump mocked NBA star, first lady says she would visit his school and Michael Jordan joins chorus of support
Melania Trump said James appeared to be doing ‘good things on behalf of our next generation’.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump insulted James on Friday night hours after CNN re-aired an interview with the basketball player and reporter Don Lemon. “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” Trump said. “He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
Many, including professional athletes and the Republican governor of Ohio, were critical of Trump’s statements.
On Saturday afternoon, Melania Trump also issued a surprising, positive statement about James, but did not reference her husband.
“It looks like LeBron James is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today,” a statement provided by her spokeswoman said. “As you know, Mrs. Trump has traveled the country and world talking to children about their well-being, healthy living, and the importance of responsible online behavior with her Be Best initiative. Her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools, and she would be open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron.”
Because Donald Trump mentioned the NBA legend and Charlotte Hornets principal owner Michael Jordan in the tweet – ending with “I like Mike!” – Jordan also weighed in.
“I support LJ,” Jordan said in a statement. “He’s doing an amazing job for his community.”
James, one of the most prominent athletes in the US, has been critical of Trump for years.
In September 2017, James called Trump a “bum” for rescinding his invitation to the Golden State Warriors to celebrate their basketball championship with a visit to the White House.
“Going to the White House was a great honor until you showed up!” James tweeted at the time.
In February, James explained why he was critical of the president: “While we cannot change what comes out of that man’s mouth, we can continue to alert the people that watch us, that listen to us, that this is not the way.”
And in an interview with CNN this week, James told Lemon that Trump was “trying to divide our sport, but at the end of the day, sport is the reason why we all come together”.
When Lemon asked: “What would you say to the President if he was sitting right here?” James said: “I would never sit across from him.”
Trump’s tweet on Friday night drew accusations of racism because Lemon and James are black men and had been discussing Trump’s previous attacks on black athletes in the interview. Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat who represents James’s hometown’s district, said: “I think it reveals and continues to reveal that president Trump race baits.”
The sports commentator Bill Simmons tweeted: “LeBron is a smart dude (and one of the most thoughtful athletes we have) – this is a bullshit tweet and feels more than a little racist.”
James, meanwhile, did not weigh in on the debate and instead on Saturday morning shared photos from the school he just opened.
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So... first Ivanka says that the media are NOT the enemy of the people... and now Melania defends LeBron.
Yikes!
Melania wants it from Lebron...you just KNOW she does!
Please don't post gratuitous insults to my seeds. Thank you.
Sorry Bob, I have a bad habit of saying things that everyone thinks but no one says!
They're right not to say it, even if they think it. Melania has done nothing to deserve foul language.
Just being married to Trump has to be harsh enough.
Lenny, I have grown to respect you. However, I have doubts in the "people" you know over there and your understanding of some of the cultural differences between there and here.
Amazing how Trump is so classless.
Good for Melania.
It is interesting how far apart from "the pack" Trump is willing to be. Perhaps, he has always been that way in his private and public life.
I don't know if Trump's racism is an aspect of his sociopathy, but the latter helps explain all the developmental problems he had as a child and generally explains his poor behavior today. It also explains why he's immune to any criticism for being a racist.
The scene from the Leprechaun 1992 cleaning shoes is meant to be funny and it is. In addition, it points out an aspect of President Donald Trump's disposition. As deficient a president for all the people as he is willing to be, President Trump can not let a single 'slight' from certain classes in the citizenry go by unescorted. Ironically, it is a defect in the man's personality to operate to ruin the careers of people who he feel attack his self-interests!
So what should we do? Remember the deal with the "baby Trump" floating high in the United Kingdom? Trump was helpless against such an action, precisely because the attack was 'imprecise.'
This campaign season: Give Trump some of his own medicine! Our leaders should enlist constituents (Hollywood celebs, billionaires, former politicians, et ceteras) to come out en masse with their true expressions of outrage against Donald Trump, the president and the man. Overload the White House "diabolical madman," and expose his true nature as a greedy, petty, megalomaniac.
I know how to be nice to people—all people. Still, our president has gone out of his way to be a brute to innocent people. If he is not politically checked, somebody is going to get seriously physically damaged in the public sphere!
As for racism. What I can tell clearly is this: Trump has minorities pegged for a 'spot' in his worldview. Alongside with women, foreigners, and immigrants, minorities should understand Donald Trump the man refuses to 'bite his tongue.' He is an ONPC© - "Original Not PC-er." That makes his tweeter insults shocking!
trump cannot let anything go. He is like a child in that respect.
If Obama responded to every criticism when he was president, it would have consumed his whole day.
Very telling when people in his orbit have to come out and defend themselves over his crass statements.
I have to break down and give Ivana credit too. She said that yes she has had bad press but it comes with the territory and the media is not the enemy.
Donald Trump does not respect other people's power. It is clear to me that the man views it as a strength of his to be free to walk all over people with his 'mouth'!
The Media! These people buy ink by the barrel and have digital bytes 'galore.' Media! It is time to get over your collective "shock and awe"about this 'strange thing' that won the 2016 presidential election and now inhabits our White House:
The real John Wayne was a fascist fellow-traveler, very active in the Hollywood witch-hunt of the 1950s and 60s.
He ruined innocent people's lives.
Perhaps, I do not know all the depth of what you are speaking about relating to "witchhunts" and "ruining of innocent lives." I am aware that John Wayne became a symbol for republican culture ideas, nevertheless. That, is not why I used this scene. It is simply a metaphor for knocking some sense into an adversary who won't let up! John Wayne's portrayal of a decent and regular man hitting back proportionally on an uncompromising bully is what I am after. (Smile.)
A Senator named Joe McCarthy misused the investigative power of the Senate to "seek out" (i.e. invent) Communists. In the State Department, in universities, and in... Hollywood. Dozens of screenwriters, et cetera, were blacklisted. (See the movie "Dalton Trumbo".)
John Wayne was militant about keeping these people - whose only "crime" was contempt of Congress when they refused to designate other "Communists" - from earning a living.
McCarthy was eventually censured by the Senate for his unethical behavior.
Ah, thank you for the heads up! I will get around to reading about the account. (Smile.)
Crooked Melania is an enemy of the people!
Crooked Melania is an enemy of the people!
Unbelievable! This I can tell you. Believe me, There's only one thing to do with Crooked Melania:
LOCK HER UP!
Friend Krishna, I can't agree with that because I am cautious about what I say about women who have not asked for a spotlight in any notable way. That said, I am triggered with a smile as I comeback across your comment and imagine you saying it out-loud!
HA!
Actually it was intended as sarcasm. (The appropriate thing to do would've been to indicate that all that was intended as sarcasm. But he level of discourse here has sunken to such low levels I really no longer care -(
So, to a liberal, a wife and daughter having a different opinion than the husband/father is a baaaaaaaddd thing.
Why are Americans not surprised?
That's what you understand the others here to be saying?
Gawd.....
That is exactly what we are seeing here. Liberalism has instilled "toe the line no matter what" mantra for years. If you step out of that mantra, you are to be ostracized, demeaned, ridiculed, etc. Ask any black that has publicly supported our President what I am talking about.
Malania and Ivanka have their own opinions, and those opinions may differ from the president. Liberals on this site ridicule Trump because they have different opinions than he does.
Liberalism is a sloppy ideology that needs to go away. It is dangerous to the real progress of this country. I did not serve for 20 years to have this country overtaken by whiny, snot nosed millennials and left over 60s acid induced liberals to make it the utopia they want it to be.
No. Everyone has the right to say whatever they please. BUT!... each of us is responsible for what we say.
If a person says something foolish, it is legitimate to say "What you say is foolish!"
If a person says something racist, it is legitimate to say "What you say is racist!"
If a person says something stupid, it is legitimate to say "What you say is stupid!"
A Black person supporting a White-supremacist is about as stupid as it gets, so of course that person's ideas will be called stupid.
Emphatically.
And any person of color or woman, who does not correct President Donald Trump who has lavished in white privilege all his childhood and adult life when he puts down people of color or wome-lacks good common sense and in some circles can be considered a coward.
People need to learn to distinguish differences between specious and reasonable arguments!
I have to agree with you, Bugsy. Never in the history of marital relations has any couple ever disagreed with each other about anything. /sarc off
The gratuitous insults ot the first lady and using this for a walkway to project their hatred of everything President Trump is, says or does.
Really nothing new here.
Normally I would have to agree with you-- even in the very best marriages, of course husbands and wives sometimes isageegree. And I'm sure that's happened at times with all spouses of presidents- of both parties. No big deal.
Normally I wouldn't bother to comment-- let alone pay any sinificant attention. So what's the difference here? Well, its because its Donald Trump-- and the unusual degree to which he seeks approval. Or perhaps more accurately how much of a deal it is with him when anyone disagrees with him. So yes- there is something new here!
Of course that would be expected with those of the opposite party-- but with him he constantly makes a big deal of it with fellow Republicans-- even those whose poliical views are the same as his. His obsession with publicallJeff Sessions being but one example...
He's always been quite defensive when it comes to any criticism of his family--- so therefore I think it will interesting to watch to see how he handles dissenting views from a family member.
What is "fux news". Sounds like something childish you made up.