DALLAS — President Donald Trump said he does not understand the Dallas Mavericks‘ trade of Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers and said the deal should be redone, in a keynote address delivered from the American Airlines Center stage on the opening night of the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention Wednesday.
Trump does not claim any expertise in basketball.
“This is a big Dallas Mavericks team, which is going to be hopefully good,” Trump said. “I don’t understand. I must tell you, I don’t understand the trade. That trade is not good. What do I know about basketball? I would say that was not going to, it’s not going to go down as the greatest trade in the history of sports. It might go down as the worst trade in the history of sports.”
The building he said it in is the Mavericks’ home arena. Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont hold majority ownership of the team, and Mark Cuban is a minority owner. In an interview on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s podcast released Sept. 2, Trump praised Adelson’s support and called the venue a great basketball arena, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The trade Trump was talking about went through on Feb. 2, 2025, a three-team deal that also pulled in the Utah Jazz. Back to Dallas came Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. Nine months later, on Nov. 11, 2025, the Mavericks fired general manager Nico Harrison and handed the front office to Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi as interim co-general managers.
Donald Trump Ranks the Luka Dončić Trade Against the Babe Ruth Sale
Trump said Boston moved Babe Ruth because the club needed money.
“You know the worst trade in the history of sports, right? The great Babe Ruth,” Trump explained. “Babe Ruth, 19-year-old pitcher for a 36-year-old third baseman and $100,000. At that time, that was like $10 million, I guess, because Boston needed money. So Babe will always be the worst trade.”
Rather than trading Ruth, the Boston Red Sox sold his contract to the New York Yankees. No player went to Boston in the transaction. Owner Harry Frazee agreed to the sale on Dec. 26, 1919, and the clubs announced it on Jan. 5, 1920, at a price the Society for American Baseball Research puts at $100,000, payable in four annual installments of $25,000 at 6% interest. Ruth was 24 that winter. He had pitched and played the outfield across six seasons in Boston. Frazee defended the move to Boston reporters at the time by saying he wanted a winning club instead of a “one-man team.” Five months after the announcement, Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert made Frazee a separate $300,000 personal loan, with Fenway Park as collateral.
Trump’s expectation is that somebody in Dallas can explain the trade to him.
“That’s not good. That wasn’t good. Maybe we could redo that trade. I redo deals all the time,” Trump said. “We got to redo. We got to redo that deal. I don’t get that deal. Some deals you understand. I understand deals, but that one I didn’t quite get. Somebody from Dallas, I’m sure, can explain it to me.”
WhatTthe Dallas Mavericks Have Done Since Trading Luka Dončić
Three months after the trade, Dallas won the 2025 draft lottery and took Cooper Flagg first overall. Flagg started all 70 games he played as a rookie, averaging 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists while shooting 46.8% from the field. He won Rookie of the Year.
Davis lasted 20 games in a Mavericks uniform. He averaged 20.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in them, and on Feb. 5, 2026, Dallas shipped him to the Washington Wizards in an eight-player deal. Christie stayed and played 77 games, averaging 12.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists with 40.4% shooting from three.
The Mavericks finished 26-56 and 12th in the Western Conference. Dallas scored 114.1 points per game, 23rd in the league, and allowed 119.6.
Masai Ujiri took over basketball operations on May 4, 2026, as president and alternate governor. Four days later he hired Mike Schmitz, previously an assistant general manager with the Portland Trail Blazers, and said in the announcement that Schmitz knows how to build an aligned culture across every part of a basketball organization.
“Mike is one of the most respected evaluators and basketball minds in the NBA,” Ujiri said.
Dallas and coach Jason Kidd parted ways on May 19, 2026. Dusty May is the head coach for the coming season.
The convention runs a second night at American Airlines Center on Thursday, with Trump scheduled to deliver the closing address from 8 to 9 p.m. CT.
Dallas opens the regular season Oct. 21 at Houston at 7:30 p.m. CT. The home opener is Oct. 24 against San Antonio at 7 p.m. CT. Dončić and the Lakers visit American Airlines Center on Feb. 28.
