Dwyane Wade: Trump tweet about cousin's death left "a bad taste in my mouth"
NBA star Dwyane Wade said he is “conflicted” over a tweet Donald Trump sent out last week remarking on the death of Nykea Aldridge, Wade’s first cousin who fell victim to gun violence in Chicago while she was pushing her baby in a stroller down the street.
“I was kind of conflicted,” Wade told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Friday. “You know, it’s like, on one hand – your cousin’s death is used as a ploy for political gain. On the other hand, it’s a national story.”
Trump sent the controversial tweet early Saturday, claiming that Aldridge’s death was “[j]ust what I have been saying” and misspelling Wade’s first name in the original message before correcting it in a second Twitter blast:
After the tweet drew an avalanche of social media scorn for its tone-deaf rhetoric, Trump sent out another message hours later, extending his “condolences” to Wade and his family:
Wade, a vocal advocate against gun violence, said of his hometown that he wanted “eyes on the city.”
“I want us to be able to do more together and the only way we can do more together is for people to know what’s going on,” the Chicago Bulls player said. “So I was grateful that it started a conversation.”
But, Wade added, “on the other hand, it just – it was a – it just - a bad taste in my mouth because of, you know, what my family is dealing with and what our city of Chicago is dealing with and it looks like it’s being used as political gain.”