Trump says he 'should have left American basketball players arrested in China in jail'

President Donald Trump has suggested that he should have left three American basketball players imprisoned in China because he did not like the comments made by one of their parents.

"Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal," Mr Trump tweeted. "I should have left them in jail!"

LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested in China earlier this month for shoplifting sunglasses before the University of Southern California (UCLA) season opener in Shanghai. They were released last week after the situation was "resolved to the satisfaction of the Chinese authorities," according to Larry Scott, commissioner of the Pacific-12 athletic conference.

Mr Trump claimed he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his help in the case. On Wednesday, the day after the players were released, he tweeted: "Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!"

But Mr Ball's father, LaVar, told ESPN that Mr Trump had little to do with the players' release.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...

17 show all Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...

1/17 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” REUTERS/Carlos Barria

2/17 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago. AFP/Getty Images

3/17 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

4/17 The 'muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security. Bryan R Smith/Getty

5/17 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there. AP

6/17 Called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea.

7/17 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control. Getty Images

8/17 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no.

9/17 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

10/17 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet.

11/17 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news”.

12/17 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop. Getty Images

13/17 Not realizing being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire. REUTERS

14/17 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so. Reuters

15/17 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.)

16/17 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement. Getty Images

17/17 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t. The day was very dreary. Reuters

“What was he over there for?" he asked of the President's trip to China. "Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

While the elder Mr Ball said he was happy with the way things were handled, he added: "A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told [LiAngelo]: ‘They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes'."

That same day, White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino fired back at the elder Mr Ball from his personal Twitter account.

"Wannabe @Lakers coach, BIG MOUTH @Lavarbigballer knows if it weren’t for President @realDonaldTrump, his son would be in China for a long, long, long time!" Mr Scavino wrote. The President issued his tweet the next day.

Donald Trump says he doesn't blame China for 'taking advantage of America'

The players were arrested in early November after shoplifting from three stores near their hotel, according to UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero. Police identified them after searching their bags and finding the stolen items.

The charges were dropped after the players admitted guilt, school officials said. The players have been suspended from their team indefinitely.

All three players thanked Mr Trump and apologised for their actions in a press conference shortly after their release.

"To President Trump and the United States government, thank you for taking the time to intervene on our behalf," Mr Riley said in his statement on Wednesday. "We really appreciate you helping us out."

Mr Trump has previously feuded with members of other sports teams – most notably, with the NFL players who knelt during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. In September, Mr Trump suggested that any players who "took a knee" should be fired.

Just last month, the President tweeted: "Two dozen NFL players continue to kneel during the National Anthem, showing total disrespect to our Flag & Country. No leadership in NFL!"