But letting this American get beaten to death in North Korea is presidential? FU National Review
Posted on 11/20/2017 9:38:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The father of one of the basketball players who had been facing shoplifting charges in China downplayed President Trump’s role in having him released — and Trump’s response may be one of the worst I’ve seen yet.
Now, to be fair, I certainly do understand why President Trump would have been upset by this. If you want to argue that LiAngelo Ball’s father, LaVar, should have shown gratitude instead of dismissal of President Trump’s efforts, then I’d say that’s a fine argument. What’s not fine, however, is this:
Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
I mean, really? These three players thanked you by name, but because one of their fathers said something that you didn’t like, all three of them should have had to rot in a foreign jail? There’s really no appropriate response to a reaction like that except for, just, come on, man.
Of course, I’m not saying that these players don’t deserve any punishment. They do . . . and they deserve some ridicule, too. After all, not only is stealing wrong, but stealing in China also makes you kind of an idiot. These three embarrassed themselves, UCLA, their families, and our entire country — but they still don’t deserve to rot in a Chinese jail, and President Trump did the right thing by working to free them. Here’s the thing, though: President Trump should have worked to free them simply because it was the right thing to do, and his tweet suggests he did it looking for admiration.
This wasn’t “presidential,” and I’m not using that word in the way that most people use it. After all, when most people criticize Trump for not being “presidential,” what they mean is that he doesn’t conduct himself with the kind of decorum that they believe someone in his position should. This, however, goes so far beyond that: It suggests that President Trump does not understand that his role is to be a servant for the people of the United States — of all of the people, whether they (or their fathers) like him or not.
Yes, what President Trump did was noble, but it wasn’t extraordinary — it was his job. This is America, and our presidents don’t just leave U.S. citizens in foreign countries’ jails regardless of whether or not those citizens thought it was a good idea to steal luxury merchandise or not. President Trump should have done what he did because it’s the kind of thing he was elected to do, not in exchange for recognition from the players, their fathers, or anyone.
Only the grammar parsing intellectuals at NR have trouble understanding what Trump meant.
Never Trumpers are still “taking him literally while supporters take him seriously”.
The author is an @$$.
Trump should have left them to get the punishment they so deserved.
“Katherine Timpf”
I was wondering what Bill Kristol’s new nom de plume was.
In the real world of spoiled rotten brat entitlement and identity politics victim hood we live in, Trump's admittedly very un Presidential statement was spot on, appropriate and even necessary.
She’s right. Tweeting isn’t Presidential. The Presidential thing would have been to have US Marshals arrest LiAngelo, and turn him over to the USN for keelhauling, to the applause of a grateful nation. The charge: being named LiAngelo.
I”m getting very tired of these self important so called “journalists” telling us what is and isn’t presidential. Didn’t hear squat out of this -itch when Obama’s actions/comments were un-presidential — and there were a lot of those instances.
When “presidential” is defined by the likes of Clinton and Obama, I’ll take Trump any day as the “new” definition.
These people are exposing the rot in their own hearts thanks to President Trump's gracious act toward a trio of thieving slugs.
That's how this president rolls. Only one domino was needed to start the cascade. Hillary: the first domino.
Best election ever.
Presidents aren’t Kings, they are employees of the people, they are BELOW the people so when I hear a US President talking like the average guy on the street I LIKE it because I know this is a President who knows his place. Compare that to someone like Hillary Clinton or John Kerry who view the people as mere spitoons who exist solely to serve them. That is what we do NOT need in Washington.
Timpf is with the anti-Trump National Review which my understanding is having difficulties raising enough funding to keep in business. Maybe Timpf is adding to their woes.
What Trump should have said in response to the ingrate father is that if the father had set a better example, his son would not have needed presidential help to get out of a very stupid mistake. But, now that the father has weighed in, it’s quite obvious why the son acted so poorly. #Realfathersraiserealmen.
Twitter is the only way Trump has to get his opinion out. Of course he could write an opinion piece for WaPo or something, but who reads that garbage... and WaPo would probably reword whatever he sent in anyway.
I figured out what the left means by Presidencial: Fake, Phoney, Obscurvative, e.g.
She’s the scrawny bitch on Greg Gutfelds show.
OMG, she’s the new Fox News neocon.
Now I understand where her loyalties lie.
Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes, Mort Kondrake all gone.
She’s their new hope? I loath neocons.
Yes....BEE...best election ever!
She is starting to make the Guttfeld show unwatchable.
Gratitude it is short supply in this country. Yesterday, the New York Times Sunday Review had at least 4 editorials from unhappy immigrants complaining about everything from Green Bean Casserole to being at a college that still had kids going home for Thanksgiving. (Administrators will soon fix that, undoubtedly.) Not one of them expressed love or gratitude towards the United States for taking in their refugee families.
This disgusting father not only didn't express gratitude, he disdained gratitude while at the same time making light of shoplifting in a dictatorship. The author is just another Never Trumper. If President Reagan had done this, she'd be jumping for joy.
But letting this American get beaten to death in North Korea is presidential? FU National Review
I’m sure Trump had to give up something to get them out. I’m sure the Chinese made demands and he could have slow walked it, but he didn’t. They should have given’em a caning before they released them.
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