President Trump has clashed publicly with sports stars and sometimes entire athletic organizations since taking office.
To Trump’s supporters, the feuds are all about respect for the country and the office of the presidency. Critics note that the athletes Trump has targeted are all black and charge that his attacks on athletic stars have racial overtones.
On Friday, the president again made headlines by reigniting his feud with LeBron James, the LA Lakers star who had previously criticized the president in a CNN interview earlier in the week and several times in the past year.
James told CNN’s Don Lemon earlier this week that Trump has “used sports to kinda divide us, and that’s something that I can’t relate to.” Trump responded days later, insulting James’s intelligence in a tweet.{mosads}
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!” Trump said, apparently referring to Michael Jordan, the former NBA star whom James has been compared to on occasion.
Here’s a list of the athletes that Trump has feuded with since taking office last year:
LeBron James
James’s feud with Trump dates back further than his interview with Lemon this week, as the then-Cleveland Cavaliers star rebuked the president last year for his comments on the Golden State Warriors being disinvited from the White House over Stephen Curry’s disinterest in attending the visit.
“U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!” James tweeted at the time.
Around the same time, James released a video on his social media accounts explaining his reasoning for speaking out against the Trump administration.
“We all know how much sports brings us together, how much passion it has, how much we love and care and friendships and everything it creates. And for him to try and use this platform, even more, it’s not something I can stand for, it’s not something I can be quiet about,” James said.
“We all know what happened at Charlottesville and the divide that caused and now it’s even hitting more home for me now because he’s now using sports as the platform to try and divide us,” he added, referring to the rally that turned violent between protesters and counterprotesters in a small Virginia town last August.
Stephen Curry
Trump’s feud with Curry dates back to last year, when the 2017 NBA championship-winning Golden State Warriors were uninvited from a traditional White House visit after Curry expressed disinterest in meeting the president.
“By not going, hopefully, it will inspire some change for what we tolerate in this country and what we stand for, what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye toward,” he said.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” Trump responded on Twitter at the time.
The Warriors, along with Curry, would later host an event with Washington, D.C., children instead of visiting the White House, releasing a statement that they would celebrate “equality, diversity and inclusion” without Trump.
“While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited,” the team said in a statement.
Kevin Durant
Curry’s teammate Kevin Durant joined his fellow Warrior in declaring publicly that he would not visit the White House last year, and told reporters at the time that he did not “respect” Trump or his administration.
He also appeared in a video with James criticizing the president.
Durant, who is African-American, also pointed to the president’s response to violence in Charlottesville, Va., last year caused by white supremacists that resulted in the death of a counterprotester, Heather Heyer. Trump said in statements following the riots that both sides had been responsible for violence.
“A lot [of] guys with platforms have drove the conversation in a good direction. And what’s going on in Charlottesville, that was unfathomable,” he said.
“I don’t agree with what he agrees with, so my voice is going to be heard by not doing that,” Durant said. “That’s just me personally, but if I know my guys well enough, they’ll all agree with me.”
Unlike Curry, Trump has not addressed Durant publicly, other than his statements attacking the Golden State Warriors for their disinterest. Some of his supporters criticized the video with James, and Fox News host Laura Ingraham told the basketball players to “shut up and dribble.”
Colin Kaepernick
Trump’s feud with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stems from the NFL star’s controversial decision to protest police brutality and racism by kneeling during performances of the national anthem before football games, which the president has called disrespectful to the military.
In October of last year, the president said in an interview that the NFL could have avoided the controversy over Kaepernick’s protest by simply suspending him after the first protest, one of several increasingly harsh consequences the president has declared NFL players who joined Kaepernick’s symbolic protests deserve.
“I watched Colin Kaepernick and I thought it was terrible. And then it got bigger and bigger and started mushrooming. And frankly the NFL should have suspended him for one game and he would have never done it again,” Trump said in 2017 on Fox News.
At a rally the month before, Trump called on NFL owners to force players who protest off the field and fire them.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’ ”
Kaepernick’s mother fired back at Trump at the time, calling his comments a “big mistake.”
“It’s always at his rallies, and he’s always pandering and playing to the crowd,” she said. “There are a lot of racist people in that crowd, a lot of people that are just looking for something to get hyped about, and this is the kind of thing he does.”
Marshawn Lynch
Trump singled out Marshawn Lynch last year after the Oakland Raiders running back stood during a performance of the Mexican national anthem during the team’s game in Mexico City, but knelt during a performance of America’s national anthem.
“Marshawn Lynch of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our National Anthem. Great disrespect!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.”
Lynch, known for his dismissive attitude toward the press, did not respond in a public statement but instead showed up to a NFL game wearing a shirt reading “Everybody Vs. Trump.”
The wife of Oakland Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio also responded to Trump’s comments, tweeting that she regretted voting for the president.
“President Trump I voted for you, which I now regret,” Linda Del Rio said. “Football is a powerful platform – here’s the charitable work we did in Mexico City.”
Lavar Ball/UCLA basketball players
The president took aim at Lavar Ball, father of one of the three UCLA basketball players detained in China on shoplifting charges late last year, after Ball minimized Trump’s role in obtaining the players’ release from Chinese custody during a TV interview.
“Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked by a host about the president’s efforts. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
“Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!” Trump responded on Twitter.
In a previous tweet, Trump had claimed credit for the players’ release and questioned whether they would thank him for his efforts. The players subsequently held a news conference in which they apologized for the incident and thanked Trump.
Torrey Smith/Philadelphia Eagles
Trump sparked a feud with the Philadelphia Eagles last month over the team’s support for protests during the national anthem, declaring that the team would be uninvited from the traditional White House celebration for the NFL championship winners.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow. They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country,” Trump said in a statement.
“The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better,” he added.
The move followed statements from Torrey Smith and other Eagles players, with Smith accusing Trump of using offensive rhetoric that he couldn’t support.
“For me, it’s not just about politics,” he said. “You know, if I told you that I was invited to a party by an individual that I believe is sexist or has no respect for women, or I told that you this individual has said offensive things towards many minority groups and I don’t feel comfortable by it, this individual also called my peers and my friends SOBs, you would understand why I wouldn’t want to go to that party.”
“So, why is it any different when this person has the title of president of the United States?”
— Updated 11:13 a.m.