If you’ll recall, President Trump worked his magic during a trip to China and had three UCLA players, LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill, who were arrested on shoplifting, freed and brought back home to America. The young men were facing up to 10 years in jail for the offense.
During a recent interview, however, LiAngelo Ball stated that the UCLA TOLD HIM To thank Trump — and that’s the only reason he really did it.
His father is the same guy who said he would have thanked President Trump if he had brought his son home on Air Force One… yea that guy.
According to USAToday Ball stated, “They wanted to hear that, and he tweeted about it before my speech so I had to add it in there right before I gave it. My school wanted to hear it too. Before I went up there, it’s like, ‘You gotta thank him.’ I just threw him in there real quick before I gave my speech.”
And when asked if he would have still thanked Trump if he had known he would be forced to leave the UCLA, he said: “No. If they didn’t want me to do it. If they didn’t tell me to do it, it wouldn’t have been in there, to be honest.”
As for what happened with the trio and President Trump:
It all started earlier this month, when three UCLA basketball players were detained in China, where their team was to play an exhibition game. The trio had stolen from three stores, including a Louis Vuitton, in Hangzhou, China.*
In the days that followed, the players were held in their hotel room.
Then, President Trump arrived in China as part of a 12-day Asia trip. He was informed about the players’ plight by his staffers, who heard about it on CNN. According to Trump’s account, he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether he knew anything about the “knuckleheads” being held in Hangzhou. Xi didn’t, but he dispatched an aide to gather more information.