Trump back to his Twitter fights with athletes

US President Donald Trump has revived his twitter fights with kneeling National Football League (NFL) players and at the father of a UCLA basketball player recently released from a Chinese jail, revisiting some of his favorite grievances just before Thanksgiving, a holiday of national unity.

Back at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida for the Thanksgiving weekend, Trump spent the morning hours of Wednesday playing some golf as well as on his obsession with NFL players’ kneeling protests during the national anthem and carrying on his fight with LaVar Ball, the father of a UCLA basketball player arrested in China for shoplifting during Trump’s recent visit there.

Trump, in recent months, has repeatedly attacked black athletes or public figures on Twitter as ingrates, even after being fiercely criticized, including by senior members of his administration, for equating white nationalists and Black Lives Matter counterprotesters who clashed violently in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past August.

The president targeted Ball after he refused to thank the president for his help in orchestrating the release of Ball’s son and two other UCLA basketball players arrested in China for shoplifting. earlier this week, Ball said he was not aware of anything Trump had done to deserve thanks.

“LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair,” Trump said, adding, “Just think LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!”

The president also retweeted Joey Mannarino, the London-based co-host of pro-Trump online broadcast Your Voice America, who used the opportunity to smear Trump’s other favorite foil, Hillary Clinton. “If you get someone’s son out of prison, he should be grateful to you! Period. I don’t care. If Hillary got my kid out of prison, as much as I hate the woman, I’d thank her corrupt ass!” he said.

Trump followed his punching streak with another tweet about kneeling NFL players, an issue that started in sports and metastasized into a national conversation this fall when the president called the protesting players “son of a bitch” and suggested they be cut from their teams as discipline for not standing at attention during the anthem.

Taking a knee during the US National Football League is part of an effort to raise awareness about police brutalities against minorities such as African Americans.

The social gesture began last year when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem to protest racial injustice.

Meanwhile, many players, owners and coaches continue kneeling during the anthem around the league. NFL teams whose owners or CEOs have voiced their support of players’ free expression included the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks.

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