President Trump Rips Mavs' Luka Doncic Trade With Babe Ruth Comparison: 'Worst In History!'

DALLAS - We're not quite sure if President Donald Trump knows whether a basketball is pumped-up or stuffed.

As he said himself in a keynote address delivered from the American Airlines Center stage on the opening night of the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention on Wednesday ...

"What do I know about basketball?''

But Trump - who does fancy himself as a sports expert - his son Don Jr. recently claimed, "Anyone who knows my father knows he probably knows more about sports than just about any human being not in the business'' - seems confident with at least one NBA take.

“I don’t understand,'' he said. "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.”

"It'' is of course the Dallas Mavs' deal that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for, essentially, a bag of magic beans.

The deal, as you know: On Feb. 2, 2025, a three-team trade that netted Dallas Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick.

Nine months later, on Nov. 11, 2025, the Mavericks fired the overseer of that deal, general manager Nico Harrison, and they are now under new guidance from team president Masai Ujiri, GM Mike Schmitz and coach Dusty May.

“This is a big Dallas Mavericks team, which is going to be hopefully good,” Trump said. 

Yeah, maybe. Three months after the trade, Dallas won the 2025 NBA 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 percent from the field. on the way to winning Rookie of the Year.

But ...

The Mavericks finished 26-56 and 12th in the Western Conference. So "hopefully good'' seems optimistic.

Trump's reality? He compared the Luka deal to the New York Yankees' legendary trade for Boston's Babe Ruth.

“You know the worst trade in the history of sports, right? The great Babe Ruth,” Trump said. “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.”

That means Luka can come in second?

“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.”

No, sir. We really cannot.