REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Trump made a viral joke about LeBron in the WNBA back in 2022
A video of President Donald Trump discussing how LeBron James would fare in the WNBA has resurfaced amid a Sophie Cunningham-fueled debate about transgender athletes in sports. Cunningham’s recent comments in a profile interview have reignited the larger debate about transgender athletes.
In a profile interview with ESPN, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said that she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
These comments were immediately latched onto by conservative media, who immediately crowned Cunningham as its latest champion in the culture wars. Cunningham has since leaned into the notoriety.
A joke that President Trump made about LeBron James playing in the WNBA back in 2022 has resurfaced and gone viral on social media
Amid the rekindled discourse about transgender athletes, a joke President Trump once made about what he’d do if he coached in the WNBA has been making the rounds on social media.
“I’d be the greatest women’s basketball coach in history…I’d go up to LeBron James…l’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,” Trump said back in 2022.
Donald Trump says if he coached in the WNBA, he’d ask LeBron if he has “any desire to be a woman” 😭 pic.twitter.com/M74QJlw28L
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) August 5, 2026
While the video has resurfaced this week in the wake of Cunningham’s comments, Trump actually made the joke back in 2022.
Jemele Hill certainly reacted to the video as if it was new, tweeting: “First, Obama and now LeBron. The president sure does have an obsession with successful, self-made Black men.”
Cunningham’s comments have sparked a notable response within the WNBA, as well, as Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wore a t-shirt that read “Trans Kids Belong” when the Lynx played the Indiana Fever on Sunday, while multiple “rallies” for Cunningham have been organized ahead of the Fever’s recent games.