Donald Trump finally responds to LeBron James calling him out, says Michael Jordan is better

After silence for days following LeBron James claiming Donald Trump was using sports to try and “divide” the United States, Trump has finally broken his silence, and his tweeted response is ... something, I guess:

So he felt like the best burn he could think of was that James is ... smart and that Michael Jordan is better? After James basically accused him of dog whistling after calling him a “bum” on Twitter earlier this year? It’s honestly surprising Trump’s response wasn’t more racially charged or angry, even if Trump is implying that the only way to make James look smart is to sit him down with Don Lemon, which simply isn't true. I mean, we're talking about a guy with a borderline photographic memory who educates himself and speaks out on basically any social issues that arise, which is certainly more than Trump can say.

But why did it take Trump so long to respond to James calling him out so many times? Prior to now his strongest rebuttal had been that he wouldn’t invite the Cavaliers to the White House if they won the NBA Finals, an invitation the team likely would have declined anyway if past trends hold.

Well, as Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times astutely pointed out on Twitter, James “doesn’t play in a a swing state anymore.” So we could get more of this throughout the year. Oh joy.

And holding with the trend of “there is a tweet for literally everything,” it seems that Trump hasn’t always been so down on James:

It will be interesting to see if James responds to this, or just lets it end here, but it’s also worth noting how ridiculous all this is. James opened a school to help hundreds of at-risk children this week, while Trump is attempting to shut down his charitable foundation but might not be able to because of potential violations of federal law while his education secretary attempts to undo college loan forgiveness for students who were “knowingly deceived” by their schools and rolls back Obama-era guidelines on discrimination in schools.

Basically .. it’s pretty clear who has the moral high ground here, and anyone that can’t see that is probably a little biased.

Also, we can all agree that this indisputably makes James the GOAT, right? I, for one, won’t be on the wrong side of history on this one.

You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.