Donald Trump’s predictable unpredictability on Twitter has gone from a frustration to a mere annoyance for Capitol Hill, his cabinet, and his White House staff. Amazingly enough, Washington seems to have factored Trump’s tweets into the complex equation of how government works. But the president still has the ability to shock on the social media platform—and now with double the characters.
The first jaw-dropping tweet came Sunday morning. Last week Trump had egged on UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball after the 18-year-old and two of his teammates were released from a Chinese prison, where they were being held for shoplifting. The president, having just visited China on his foreign trip, had taken credit for securing their release and wondered on Twitter if the three college students would say “thank you” to him. LiAngelo promptly did just that, and so the would-be flame-war went nowhere. That is, until LiAngelo’s overbearing and attention-seeking father LaVar Ball downplayed Trump’s role in his son’s release. Then this happened:
Trump went on to say that “shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be” and said the Balls were “very ungrateful.”
To say Trump’s tweets were counterproductive and unnecessary would be an understatement. Regardless of what LaVar Ball said, LiAngelo and his teammates did, in fact, publicly thank Trump and his administration for securing their release. Should the gracious son suffer for the sins of the obnoxious father? Trump seems to think so.
But more importantly, the president’s suggestion, even if it was made in jest, that he has reconsidered his effort to save American citizens from cruel and unusual punishment in a foreign, authoritarian country—and that the punishment was justified—may embolden other authoritarian governments to target Americans. It’s demoralizing to any American held on trumped up charges (no pun intended) in another country. It’s also just plain wrong for a president to say such things about his fellow citizens.
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05.18.2024