Trump reignites feud with LeBron James, backs Michael Jordan instead
Trump revived his feud with LeBron James in the Oval Office, calling the NBA star "maybe" a racist and saying he preferred Michael Jordan, a move that quickly drew political backlash.
President Trump revived his long-running feud with LeBron James on Friday in the Oval Office, saying the NBA star may be "a racist" when asked to choose between James and Michael Jordan. Trump praised Jordan as "a friend of mine" and added, "I only like people that like me, so I would say Michael Jordan all the way."
The exchange fit a pattern Trump has used for years: turning a celebrity dispute into a broader argument about race, loyalty and grievance. James has repeatedly criticized Trump in public, and the president has repeatedly answered by trying to discredit him personally rather than engage the substance of the criticism.
James first drew Trump’s ire in January 2018, when he said Trump had emboldened racists in the United States. Trump answered on Twitter by questioning James’ intelligence. That same period also brought an unusual split in the Trump family when Melania Trump publicly backed James, saying she supported his work with at-risk children and that he was doing a great job.
The feud had already become entwined with national politics before then. After the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, James called Trump the "so-called president" and urged unity. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2018, James said Trump had allowed racists to operate without fear. Those remarks put a top NBA figure at the center of a debate over how the White House was talking about race and public violence.
The latest comment widened the fight again. A New Jersey senator called Trump’s attack on James racist, pushing the dispute beyond sports and into another round of partisan argument over how Trump talks about Black public figures. A 2020 fact-check also found that a LeBron James quote about white people had been taken out of context, underscoring how often the feud has spilled into social media backlash and distorted claims about race.
By invoking Jordan, Trump chose a different kind of celebrity contrast: one rooted in personal loyalty, golf and reputation rather than James’ criticism of him. The result was the same as in earlier rounds of the feud, with a sports question quickly becoming a political one.
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