Trump Called LeBron a Total Disgrace For Season Opener Antics and LeBron Answered During the Very Next Anthem

LeBron James swiveled his hips through the national anthem at Madison Square Garden like he was standing on the first tee.

President Trump saw the video and branded the 41-year-old Philadelphia 76ers star a total disgrace.

That same night, LeBron lined up for another anthem and fired back at the President without saying a word.

Trump Demanded an Apology to America's Fallen Heroes

It happened at the 76ers' season opener against the New York Knicks on Tuesday, October 20, and the cameras caught every turn.

Trump didn't let it slide.

On Thursday, October 22, he went straight to Truth Social: "While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country!"

He reminded everyone he had pegged LeBron as no good from the very beginning.

Then he demanded LeBron apologize to the American warriors and heroes who died defending the flag.

Most players would quietly stand still at the next game and let the story die.

LeBron is not most players.

LeBron Brought the Golf Routine Back Against Cleveland

That same Thursday night, the 76ers hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers – the team where LeBron built his legend.

The anthem started, and so did the hips.

He stood with his teammates and kept rotating his hips like a man waiting his turn on the tee box.

OutKick's Joe Kinsey read it as a direct response to Trump.

The Philadelphia Inquirer tried to call it stretching.

Reporters asked LeBron about Trump after the game, and he waved it off.

"Slow news day at the office," he said.

That's his answer to a President who asked him to honor the men who died for his freedom.

Out in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump told a rally crowd that same night he couldn't figure out what on earth LeBron was doing.

https://twitter.com/HouseLowlights/status/2113010314937852174

LeBron Ran the Same Routine Before a Lakers Game in 2025

LeBron pulled the same stunt in December 2025 in Los Angeles before a matchup with the Sacramento Kings.

Fans caught him swinging his hips on camera, and sports radio host Craig Carton tore into him on his podcast the next day.

"Don't do it during my national anthem," Carton said.

Carton's point was simple – those two minutes belong to the troops who never came home.

LeBron heard all of it.

He changed teams, changed cities, and kept the routine.

The NBA used to take this seriously.

In 1996, the league suspended Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf for refusing to stand for the anthem.

Abdul-Rauf was back on his feet within days.

The league's rulebook has long required players to stand for the anthem, and LeBron knows it.

https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/2113440097509228651

The 2020 Bubble Showed What Fans Do When Players Insult the Flag

Nobody can claim LeBron doesn't know any better.

He is a 41-year-old man on his fourth NBA team, playing out a veteran minimum deal in Philadelphia – the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

LeBron has been swinging at Trump since 2017, when he called him a bum on Twitter for pulling the Golden State Warriors' White House invitation.

Trump has never been shy about returning fire.

In July, he weighed in on the greatest-of-all-time debate, passed on LeBron, and picked Michael Jordan.

Nine years later, he's still picking the same fight, only now he's doing it on the anthem's time.

He knows every camera in the building is trained on him.

He knows those hip turns are going to end up on every phone in America.

And he did it anyway, in back-to-back games, with the President of the United States watching.

The league has run this experiment before.

In the 2020 bubble, the league plastered slogans across the court and players turned the anthem into a protest.

Game 1 of those Finals drew just 7.41 million viewers, down 44 percent from the year before and the least-watched Finals opener on record.

LeBron was standing at the center of that collapse.

Trump hammered the league for it at the time.

The same sickness is spreading in women's basketball, where both WNBA Finals teams walked off the court during the anthem for three straight games.

Vice President JD Vance labeled it exactly what it is – disgraceful.

Trump and Vance are saying out loud what millions of fans already feel every time they reach for the remote.

The men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima didn't get a slow news day.

The soldiers buried at Arlington didn't get to work on their golf swing.

LeBron gets two minutes to stand still, put his hand over his heart, and honor them.

He chose his hips instead, and he chose them twice.

Sources:

• Bob Hoge, "Trump-LeBron Feud Heats Up After Latest Anthem Diss – 'A TOTAL DISGRACE,'" RedState, October 22, 2026.
• Joe Kinsey, "LeBron James Doubles Down With Sneaky Golf Hip Turns During National Anthem After Trump's 'Total Disgrace' Dig," OutKick, October 23, 2026.
• Ryan Gaydos, "LeBron James Accused of Working on His Golf Swing During National Anthem," Fox News, December 30, 2025.
• Lynden Blake, "LeBron James Caught Practicing His Golf Swing During National Anthem," The Daily Wire, December 31, 2025.
• Allahpundit, "NBA Finals Ratings Sink to All-Time Lows," Hot Air, October 2, 2020.