US President Donald Trump publicly attacked basketball star LeBron James on his own platform Truth Social on Thursday, according to the Norwegian outlet Dagbladet. The president shared a video of the 41-year-old moving from side to side and making motions resembling basketball shots while lined up with his Philadelphia 76ers teammates before a season opener against the New York Knicks. Trump wrote that James showed disrespect for the country while the national anthem was being played.
In the same post, the president said he had doubted James from the very beginning and called the player "a total disgrace," Dagbladet reports. The post was published on Truth Social, the medium Trump uses for his own statements.
James responded with composure rather than confrontation. According to Dagbladet, the basketball star brushed off the criticism and remarked that it must be a quiet news day at the office.
Why it matters
The exchange puts a sitting president in direct conflict with one of the most recognized athletes in American sport, and it does so over the symbolic ground of the national anthem. Dagbladet frames the episode as the president seeing red while the player stayed entirely calm, a contrast that shapes how the story is likely to be received.
Athletes and anthem protocol have been a recurring fault line in US public life, and a presidential post elevates a few seconds of pre-game movement into a national argument. Because the president published the video himself, the dispute reached his followers directly, without going through traditional media first. The fact that James answered with a light remark rather than a statement of protest also matters: it denies the story the escalation that a sharper reply would have produced.
For CYBEV readers, the episode is a reminder that sports and politics increasingly share the same stage, and that a single post can set the terms of a debate that plays out across both.
What the video showed and what was said
Dagbladet reports that the footage was recorded before the season opener between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks. James was standing in line with his teammates when the anthem was played. In the clip, he sways from side to side and performs movements that resemble shooting a basketball.
Trump's post described those movements as a lack of respect for the country during the anthem. He added that he had said from the outset that James was not up to the task, and he closed the relevant portion of the message by describing the episode as a total disgrace, according to Dagbladet.
The president did not elaborate in the quoted material on what specific part of the movements he objected to, and Dagbladet's account does not include any further explanation from him. The post was published on Thursday, with Dagbladet carrying its report on the evening of Friday, 23 October 2026.
A measured reply from the player
James did not match the president's tone. Dagbladet reports that he took the criticism with complete calm and said it must be a slow news day at the office. The remark reframes the attack as a comment on the news cycle rather than on his conduct, and it leaves the president's characterization unanswered on its own terms.
That choice is notable given James's profile. He is 41 and remains a central figure in the league, and the pre-season setting means the clip came from a moment of routine preparation rather than a staged demonstration. Dagbladet's reporting does not indicate that James offered any further comment beyond the quoted line.
The asymmetry between the two statements — a capitalized denunciation on one side and a dry one-liner on the other — is likely to define coverage of the episode. It also means the story currently rests on a single post and a single reply, with no indication from Dagbladet that either side has said more.
The broader pattern
Presidential commentary on athletes is not new, and Truth Social has become the primary channel for it. What stands out here is the speed and directness of the intervention: a video reposted by the president himself, with a verdict attached, aimed at a player during a pre-season game.
Dagbladet's report does not say whether the league, the 76ers or the Knicks have responded, and it does not indicate that any disciplinary process has begun. The account is limited to the post, the video's contents and James's reaction.
The episode also illustrates how anthem-related gestures remain a reliable trigger for political reaction in the United States, even when the movement in question is ambiguous. Dagbladet describes James's motions as swaying and shot-like, without attributing any stated intent to him. That gap between what a video shows and what an observer reads into it is where the dispute sits.
Watch for whether the league or the 76ers issue any statement, and whether the president returns to the subject in further posts.
