President Donald Trump took aim at NBA superstar LeBron James and CNN host Don Lemon via Twitter on Friday night.
Trump insulted both men’s intelligence with the following post:
Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
“Lebron (sic) James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” wrote Trump. “He made Lebron (sic) look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
“I like Mike!” Trump added, in apparent reference to former NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Lemon hit back early Saturday, with this post:
Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest https://t.co/XO50qVksnR — Don Lemon (@donlemon) August 4, 2018
Trump’s tweet appeared to be in reaction to Lemon’s interview with James, which actually aired on Monday night.
Check out the interview here:
″(Trump) kinda used sports to kinda divide us,” James told Lemon in their sitdown. “And that’s something that I can’t relate to because I know that sport was the first time I was around someone white.”
James, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in July, also accused Trump of enabling racists. “The president in charge now has given people, they don’t care now ― they throw it in your face now,” he said. Last year, James called Trump a “bum” for uninviting Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry to the White House.
Lemon, meanwhile, used his “CNN Tonight” show last Friday to say that Trump’s presidency “can be defined by lies.”
Also on Monday, James opened the I Promise School for at-risk children in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The establishment is a joint venture between his foundation and Akron Public Schools.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
On Friday night, President Donald Trump gave a Guinness Book of World Records-level backhanded compliment to Don Lemon’s interview of NBA star LeBron James, referring to the CNN journalist as “the dumbest man on television” and expressing surprise that Lemon managed to make James “look smart, which isn’t easy to do.” All of which indicts the president actually liked the interview, but could only express that sentiment in the most personally insulting way possible, presumably due to his vocal hatred of CNN and the choice words Don Lemon has used for Trump in the past. The president ended his tweet with the seemingly unrelated exclamation of “I like Mike!” Many on Twitter are taking it to be spontaneous praise of Michael Jordan, which makes about as much sense as anything else, we guess.
Lemon responded to Trump’s tweet this morning with a nod to First Lady Melania Trump’s campaign against bullying. “Who’s the real dummy?,” the CNN anchor tweeted Saturday. “A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest.” The focus of Lemon’s interview was the school James has recently opened in Akron, Ohio, for disadvantaged children. Trump tweeted his LeBron venom a day before making a trip to, you guessed it, Ohio.
LeBron James is one of the greatest pro basketball players in history. He's also using his tremendous success and wealth to help at-risk children in his hometown. And yet, in Donald Trump's eyes, he's "dumb."
Trump resorted to childish name-calling in a Friday evening tweet in which he slammed the intelligence of both James and CNN anchor Don Lemon. The attack was responding to an interview in which James had some mildly critical things to say about the thin-skinned U.S. president.
"What I've noticed over the past few months [is] he's kinda used sports to kinda divide us, and that's something that I can't relate to," James said during the interview. "I can't sit back and say nothing."
Asked later what he'd say if he ever found himself face-to-face with Trump, he replied: "I would never sit across from him."
Most of the interview focused on other matters, particularly James's efforts in Ohio to create an elementary school with an eye toward helping kids get their lives on track. You know, actual humanitarian work.
The jitters before the first day of school are real right now!!! Tomorrow is going to be one of the greatest moments (if not the greatest) of my life when we open the #IPROMISE School. This skinny kid from Akron who missed 83 days of school in the 4th grade had big dreams... https://t.co/PwmRaHRfng — LeBron James (@KingJames) July 29, 2018
That's not what the U.S. president saw, of course. He just picked up on the fact that someone — a successful black man, no less — dared to criticize his demonstrably true practice of using professional sports to divide Americans.
And so, a miffed Trump fired back.
Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
(The "I like Mike!" comment is meant as a knock on James, who is often mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan as the NBA's greatest of all time. That one probably didn't land as intended. James has historically shown great reverence toward Jordan.)
There's nothing substantive about Trump's tweet. Not one word or follow-up that takes issue with anything either man has actually said. It's just a pointless, aimless ad hominem attack and, as many pointed out on social media, a thinly veiled racist remark.
In Trump's World:
Obama: Kenyan
LeBron James: dumb
Don Lemon: dumb
Maxine Waters: low IQ
black countries: shitholes
black athletes: SOBs
Black tenants: unwelcome
Black workers: lazy
Central Park 5: guilty
Mexicans: rapists
Muslims: terrorists
Indians: fake
Nazis: very fine people — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 4, 2018
On Trump and that horrific, tasteless, elementary ass corny AF tweet about Don Lemon and Lebron James:
Trump has 3 modes of attack. Racism, sexism and then straight up lying. What he said about these two men is steeped in racist rhetoric about the intelligence of black people. — Christina Coleman (@ChrissyCole) August 4, 2018
Lebron is one of the all time greatest NBA players, who came from nothing and is giving everything to provide free education for low income kids. He spoke eloquently about how it hurts him to see Trump use sports to divide us. And, then the president calls him "dumb." Painful. — Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) August 4, 2018
LeBron James opens a school for underprivileged kids and Donald Trump calls him ‘dumb’?? He’s putting them in college, Trump’s putting them in cages... I think we know who the dumb motherfucker is... #SaturdayMorning — Cyrus McQueen (@CyrusMMcQueen) August 4, 2018
Whether it’s LeBron James or Oprah Winfrey, Trump can’t seem to stomach benevolent black billionaires... Perhaps it’s because they didn’t inherit their money, actually worked hard to earn their fortunes and went on to open schools that weren’t pyramid schemes... #SaturdayMorning — Cyrus McQueen (@CyrusMMcQueen) August 4, 2018
Re: that Trump tweet. That angers me beyond belief. I don’t want my future kids growing up in a world where two Black men, accomplished in their field, are called dumb because they disagree with your views. LeBron should be commended this week for his actions, not insulted. — Matt Barnes (@Matt_NBC4) August 4, 2018
And of course, no cycle of Trump shade is complete without Pete Souza, the former White House photographer for President Barack Obama, weighing in with a deep cut from his archives.
There was also this exceedingly spicy take from CNN PR.
Sounds like @FLOTUS had the remote last night. 📺 We hope you both saw the incredible work of @KingJames. #BeBesthttps://t.co/3Ok0z9Z6Ro — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) August 4, 2018
Not to be outdone, First Lady Melania Trump praised James and his work to help the children in a statement, even going so far as saying she "would be open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron."
Oh boy. After President Trump insulted LeBron James, Melania Trump issues a statement saying she’s open to visiting the school he just opened in Ohio. pic.twitter.com/t0eJ4oDrxq — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 4, 2018
UPDATED Aug. 4, 2018, 7:20 p.m. ET with Melania Trump's statement.
CNN host Don Lemon fired back at President Trump Donald John TrumpUN report: North Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile programs NYT columnist Bret Stephens warns of attacks on media: 'Blood on the president’s hands' Top Koch official fires back at critics: We are not an 'appendage' of the GOP MORE on Saturday after the president sent a tweet attacking Lemon and questioning the intelligence of NBA star LeBron James, whom the CNN host interviewed this week.
Lemon pointed out James's recent decision to open a school in Ohio for at-risk third- and fourth-graders as evidence that the NBA star was no "dummy" after Trump wrote Friday that Lemon had managed to make James look intelligent, which he said wasn't "easy to do."
"Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages?" Lemon tweeted Saturday, including the hashtag "Be Best" used by first lady Melania Trump Melania TrumpTop aide to Melania Trump leaves White House: report White House issues open casting call for Christmas entertainers Activist arrested for Statue of Liberty protest wears 'Be Best' dress to court MORE on her anti-bullying campaign. ADVERTISEMENT
Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest https://t.co/XO50qVksnR — Don Lemon (@donlemon) August 4, 2018
Trump insulted James over Twitter and appeared to reference former NBA star Michael Jordan in a tweet late Friday after James appeared on Lemon's show earlier in the week and denounced what he said was the president's use of sports to divide the country.
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do,” Trump tweeted. "I like Mike!"
In the CNN interview, which centered on James's decision to open a public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, James also appeared to indicate that he was open to the possibility of running for president, a question that has provoked the president to attack other sports stars, actors and political figures in the past.
"If someone tried to recruit a James to run for president, they said, 'Listen, they've got no one, if you don't run, Trump's going to win,' would you run?" Lemon asked the former Cleveland Cavaliers star who recently signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.
"Well, in that case, I may," James responded. “If they have no one? I believe there’s some people out there. I hope. Let’s see, first.”
CNN anchors have frequently criticized the the president and his administration over Trump's labeling of the news network and its journalists as "fake news."
Lemon himself has been a particular target of Trump in the past, who has called him the "dumbest man on television."
