Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Basketball star writes ‘Trump won!’ on the side of his head at Big3 game

Royce White is a former congressional candidate

Eric Garcia
Monday 10 July 2023 18:07 BST
Comments
NEWS OF THE WEEK: Ice Cube passed on $9 million movie over vaccine mandate

Former NBA player Royce White wrote “Trump Won!” on the side of his head as he appeared at a Big3 game.

The Big3 is a basketball league co-founded by rapper Ice Cube featuring three-on-three games. Mr White played for the Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets, but his NBA career was brief as he played only three regular season games.

Since then, he has become an outspoken right-winger.

Last year, he ran for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District to challenge Democratic Rep Ilhan Omar.

But he faced criticism when his campaign committee spent large amounts of money at major retailers without detailing how much of it was used for his campaign, Axios reported last year and he ultimately lost the primary in the solidly Democratic district.

Mr White’s message earned him the praise of many on the right.

“Royce White = MAGA fearless,” Steve Bannon said.

“Royce White knows what’s going on,” former Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake tweeted. “Trump won. EVERYONE knows it.”

Similarly, last week, Mr White said he would support a presidential ticket with Mr Trump and Democratic presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Mr Kennedy also appeared at a Big3 game on Sunday.

Despite initially criticising Mr Trump, Ice Cube later met with Mr Trump in 2020 to discuss the then-president’s agenda for Black Americans.

“Every side is the Darkside for us here in America,” he tweeted at the time. “They’re all the same until something changes for us. They all lie and they all cheat but we can’t afford not to negotiate with whoever is in power or our condition in this country will never change. Our justice is bipartisan.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in