Trump Trolls LeBron James While Calling Out Transgender Athletes In Women’s Sports

Former President Donald Trump pointed out the physical disparity between biological men and women, when it comes to competing in sports, and used his NBA nemesis, LeBron James, to illustrate the point. 

During a speech at the America First Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Trump boasted that he “would be the greatest women’s basketball coach in history.”

The former president explained that he would achieve the feat by getting a biological man, specifically LA Lakers’s star LeBron James, to play for him.

“I don’t like LeBron James… I like Michael Jordan much better,” he began. “But I’d go up to LeBron James… I’d say, ‘LeBron, did you ever have any desire to be a woman?’” 

“Because what I’d love you to do is star on my team that I’m building up,” he continued. “I’d have the greatest team in history, they’d never lose. Nobody would come within 70 points of this team.” 

"I'd be the greatest women's basketball coach in history. I don't like LeBron James, I like Michael Jordan much better. But, I'd go up to LeBron James…I'd say, 'LeBron, did you ever have any desire to be a woman? Because what I'd love you to do is star on my team." pic.twitter.com/xU5lt6hPeH

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 26, 2022

Despite using the hypothetical to take a shot at James, Trump got serious about how transgender athletes, like NCAA Division I champion Lia Thomas, have been dominating women’s sports, noting that their participation was “so disrespectful to women” and an “unfair” advantage.   

“And by the way we should not allow men to play in women’s sports. So crazy,” he said. “We have to change that, and we have to make it OK to talk about it,” he said. 

Trump’s speech wasn’t the first time he took aim at the NBA star, he insulted James’ playing in an August 2020 interview with the New Yorker. 

“I’ve seen LeBron James on TV, and, quite frankly, I don’t think he’s very good at basketball,” the former president said at the time. “The media is very unfairly biased in favor of him because he’s a Democrat, and I think it’s a disgrace.

“You look at LeBron and sometimes when he shoots the ball, it doesn’t go into the basket,” Trump continued. “If I try to drink a glass of water and miss my mouth, it’s all CNN talks about.”

Marie Finn