An old clip of U.S. President Donald Trump joking about the possibility of LeBron James playing in the WNBA is circulating on social media again.
The clip resurfaced as the WNBA continues to deal with the fallout from Sophie Cunningham’s comments opposing transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
As the debate picked up steam again, former ESPN host and The Atlantic contributing writer Jemele Hill took aim at the president.
Jemele Hill Reacts to Donald Trump’s Resurfaced Comments About LeBron James
The clip in question dates back to July 2022, when Trump, then out of office, delivered the keynote address at the America First Policy Institute Summit.
In the middle of a broader discussion about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, Trump pivoted to James as an unexpected punchline. He joked that he would become the “greatest women’s basketball coach” ever by recruiting the four-time MVP to his team.
“I’ll tell you what, I’d be the greatest women’s basketball coach in history ’cause I don’t like LeBron James. I like Michael Jordan much better,” Trump told the crowd.
“But I’d go up to LeBron James. It doesn’t matter. I’d say, ‘LeBron, did you ever have any desire to be a woman? Because what I’d love you to do is star on my team that I’m building up. I will have the greatest team in history. They’ll never lose. Nobody will come within 70 points of this team.'”
Trump has long opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and the resurfaced video comes as that issue has returned to the spotlight following Cunningham’s remarks.
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With the WNBA world still dealing with the fallout, the clip quickly found a new audience eager to debate it all over again.
James has also been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics over the years, while Trump has repeatedly targeted former President Barack Obama with personal attacks and sharp political rhetoric.
Responding to the resurfaced clip on X, Hill suggested Trump has a pattern of targeting prominent Black figures.
“First, Obama and now LeBron. The president sure does have an obsession with successful, self-made Black men,” Hill wrote.
First, Obama and now LeBron. The president sure does have an obsession with successful, self-made Black men. https://t.co/nVtfsZ4BSk
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) August 5, 2026
Hill is no stranger to this kind of clash. Her own history with President Trump dates back to 2017, when she called him a “white supremacist” on X while working as a SportsCenter anchor at ESPN.
The post set off a firestorm, drew a rebuke from then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and put her job squarely in the spotlight. She stayed at the network for another year, but the controversy never fully faded.
Hill later left ESPN in September 2018 after negotiating a buyout of her contract. Looking back on that period on “The Rick Strom Show,” she criticized the network’s handling of the situation, especially former ESPN executive Norby Williamson, whom she accused of trying to “de-Blackify” the shows on the network.
Whether there will be any response from the president’s office to Hill’s latest criticism remains to be seen, but the resurfaced clip has added another layer to a WNBA season that has seen no shortage of off-court storylines.
