Former President Donald Trump took another jab at LeBron James when he pondered the basketball star getting a sex reassignment surgery to compete in women’s sports. According to Business Insider, Trump made those comments while addressing a crowd at an event in Phoenix, Arizona.
The former president was talking about how he’ll only have transgender women on his roster if he were to be coaching a women’s sports team.
“If I were a coach, I wouldn’t be talking to too many women as we know women,” Trump told the crowd at the “Rally to Protect Our Elections” event. “I’d be getting some of these people that … they’re ‘women.’”
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The 75-year-old then went ahead to mull over how James would fare in women’s sports if he switched by having a sex reassignment surgery. “Somebody said that if LeBron James ever decided to get the operation, how would he be on the court? How would he be?” asked.
The Los Angeles Lakers basketball star has never publicly spoken about changing his gender or going under the knife to do that. “LeBron James, you can have him,” Trump added before throwing another jab at the 36-year-old. “Did you see the basketball ratings that were terrible? They went up after his team was defeated.”
Trump says if he was coaching women’s sports, he would only recruit trans athletes, then speculates on Lebron James transitioning and playing women’s basketball. pic.twitter.com/Z7Wl0Vq3Fc
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 25, 2021
It is well known James and Trump do not see eye to eye and the former president has publicly called him out on a number of occasions. In April, Trump criticized James after the basketball star posted a tweet in response to the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant. The Black teenager was fatally shot by a Columbus police officer during an altercation outside her foster home on April 20. And following her death, James shared a photo of the officer who shot her with the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
James later deleted the tweet following backlash from a section of people. “LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League,” Trump said in a statement in response to James’ tweet, The Hill reported.
“His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning. He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!”
In the wake of the backlash, James, in a series of tweets, clarified his initial post and explained why he took it down, Face2Face Africa reported.
“ANGER [does not do] any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened [sic] that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!” he tweeted.
In a follow-up post, he added: “I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
