Tristan Thompson Flamed After White House Visit & Photo With JD Vance

Tristan Thompson is the latest athlete to be criticized for his MAGA-leaning linkups.

The 2016 NBA champion was spotted at the White House on Thursday to help student-athletes navigate the onset of NIL deals, manage their finances, and support them once their careers are over.

Margo Martin, a Special Assistant and Communications Advisor to President Donald Trump, posted a video of Thompson in the press briefing room explaining his idea for aiding college athletes.

“We want to create a program for them,” Thompson said. “With NIL there’s a lot of capital, there’s a lot of money. We need to create a system to protect them. Not everyone has the ability to fortunately play in the NFL, the MLB, or the NBA. For those that might not make it to that level, how do we set them up for their future?”

He wants kids to know that the NIL deals they’re getting in college aren’t sustainable once they enter the real world, and wants to prepare them for a normal income-earning life.

No one visits the Trump White House and leaves unscathed. But to make matters worse, Thompson posted a selfie of himself on Snapchat smiling ear to ear when he got to meet Vice President JD Vance, which he excitedly captioned, “I JUST MET JD VANCE!!!”

Thompson has never made his political views public, but he did congratulate and stand next to Eric Trump at the New York Stock Exchange last year.

He also commented on a tweet blaming layoffs at companies like Amazon, Meta, and Apple on AI.

“This is what happens when a country loses confidence in its own workforce,” he wrote. “AI is supposed to increase American productivity, not become cover for replacing Americans and further gutting domestic capacity. Reindustrialize America.”

A Brampton, Ontario, Canada native, Thompson isn’t even American, and only crossed the border to play high school basketball, and a year at Texas before getting drafted to the Cavaliers in 2011.

See how social media is reacting to him butting his nose into America’s business below.