President Donald Trump thinks the UCLA players who were arrested in China on shoplifting charges should be thanking him for his diplomatic outreach.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were facing 10 years of jail time.
Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2017
According to the president’s chief of staff John Kelly, Trump called China’s president Xi Jinping to expedite the “knuckleheads'” case.
From the NYT‘s Mark Landler and Michael D. Shearnov:
“Our president said to Xi, ‘Do you know anything about these knuckleheads that got caught allegedly stealing?’” Mr. Kelly said.
Unaware of the episode, the Chinese president dispatched an aide to get more information.
“The president was saying, ‘It’s not too serious. We’d love to see this taken care of in an expeditious way,’” Mr. Kelly added.
Photo via UCLA Basketball
