This morning, we can be fairly sure, Donald Trump was watching the teevee and saw a Fox & Friends report about how star Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry wants to not go to the White House if the team is invited there to celebrate their recent championship. He punched a message into Twitter with his stubby fingers:
This message contains at least two clearly false statements. Curry isn’t hesitating; he told ESPN yesterday that he doesn’t want to go to the White House and will vote not to do so if the team is asked. Why would it come up for a vote at all? Because the White House hasn’t even extended an invitation, according to Warriors coach Steve Kerr. Why hasn’t it? Impeccably accurate ESPN NBA reporter Ramona Shelburne writes that “the NBA has stayed in close enough communication with the White House on the matter, and it is believed an invitation would be extended if the team decided as a group to attend.” In other words, the White House hasn’t invited the Warriors because it doesn’t want to give the team—whose star players Curry and Kevin Durant have expressed their contempt for the president and said they don’t want to or just won’t go—the opportunity to decline. Trump is attempting to withdraw an invitation that hasn’t been issued because it won’t be accepted. It must be humiliating.
Trump’s tweet follows on an attack on NFL players in front of a crowd of supporters in Alabama last night, in which he urged team owners to fire players protesting injustice and decried attempts to keep players in the majority-black league from suffering quite so much brain damage. It also follows on the White House calling for the firing of ESPN’s Jemele Hill, who described Trump as a white supremacist. Why anyone would think that of a politician who continually publicly attacks outspoken black people in an attempt to whip up his largely white constituency is not much of a mystery.