President Trump said the media and the National Basketball Association were both “bought” by China on Thursday during a telephone interview on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”
“There has been no one more difficult to China than to Russia, or to anyone else, than I have, despite a media bought by China, far more than Russia,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo.
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‘You ever notice it, they always say,’ Russia, Russia, Russia ‘, they do not call it’ China, China, China, ‘because most of these people, as you look at the NBA, they are bought by China “Trump said. “China is, you know, the big pot of gold.”
The NBA and China have a unique and mysterious relationship that has made headlines several times in recent memory. Houston Rocket general manager Daryl Morey put the spotlight on the relationship last year by sending a since-deleted, pro-Hong Kong tweet that resulted in China’s state-of-the-art TV refusing to play air even though the Rockets were wild there are popular because the franchise was the home base of Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming.
The situation became even more bizarre when several high-profile NBA players, including LeBron James, who has typically spoken out about problems with social justice in America, refused to speak ill of China or defend Morey’s acquittal.
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Criticism of the NBA’s ties to China was renewed months later when it was discovered that customers were banned from ordering custom gear that read “Free Hong Kong” on their online store.
Last month, ESPN reported that human rights abuses took place at NBA training academies in China. The bombshell report indicated that the young participants in the NBA program were physically beaten by Chinese instructors and were not provided with proper schools.
“China is a big problem and I have made it a much smaller problem,” Trump said before pivoting after the 2020 presidential election.
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Trump did not say which media outlets he feels were “bought out by China.” CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer had a lengthy interview with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, but ignored the controversial ties of the basketball league to China.
Just two hours after ESPN’s report ran, Silver appeared on “The Situation Room” and was not asked about the explosive exposure and received zero questions about the league’s relationship with China as a whole.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
