Trump Calls Luka Dončić Trade the Worst in Sports History

The boos came fast.

Standing at center stage in the American Airlines Center, in the very building where Luka Dončić once turned playoff nights into a weekly event, Donald Trump decided to take a swipe at the Dallas Mavericks’ most infamous decision.

He didn’t mince words.

“I must tell you, I don't understand the trade,” Trump told the crowd at Wednesday’s Republican midterm convention. “That trade is... What do I know about basketball? I would say that 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.”

In Dallas, that line hits a nerve.

A franchise-altering gamble

On Feb. 2, 2025, the Mavericks detonated the foundation of their franchise. In a three-team deal that stunned the league, Dallas sent Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.

The reaction was immediate and furious. Mavericks fans protested. Nearly everyone questioned it. The front office never escaped the backlash. By November 2025, general manager Nico Harrison was out of a job.

The gamble was clear: pivot from a heliocentric superstar in Dončić to a win-now interior anchor in Davis, with a distant first-round pick as a thin layer of future protection. The payoff never arrived. Davis lasted just one season in Dallas before the Mavericks moved him to the Washington Wizards, and the franchise was left trying to reassemble its identity from the rubble of a failed superteam vision.

Trump, speaking from the floor where Dončić once authored triple-doubles for fun, made it clear he’s still baffled.

“That's not good. That wasn't good. Maybe we could redo that trade. I redo deals all the time. We got to redo,” he said, leaning into his dealmaker persona. “We got to redo that deal. I don't get that deal. You know 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.”

Cooper Flagg era begins, but Luka shadow lingers

The Mavericks did catch one huge break in the aftermath.

Their slide down the standings delivered them the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, where they selected Cooper Flagg, anointed almost instantly as the new face of the franchise. Dallas has thrown its energy into building around the young star, trying to turn the page from the Dončić years and the Davis misfire.

Flagg now carries the hope. Dončić carries the what-if.

Even as the Mavericks try to move forward with a fresh, youthful core, the former cornerstone is lighting it up in Los Angeles, and the trade remains a sore spot in North Texas. The boos that followed Trump’s mention of the deal weren’t just about politics. They were about pain.

From Luka to Babe Ruth

Trump, though, had a historical hierarchy in mind.

He was harsh on the Mavericks, but he stopped short of putting the Dončić deal at the very top of the all-time disaster list. That dubious honor, in his view, still belongs to baseball.

“You know the worst trade in the history of sports, right?” he asked the crowd. “The great Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth (for) $100,000. At that time, that was like $10 million, I guess, because Boston needed money, so Babe will always be the worst trade. But is it Luka?”

The comparison was deliberate. The Boston Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees after three World Series titles, a move that helped fuel a dynasty in New York and a curse narrative in Boston that lasted generations. Trump framed the Dončić trade as a modern echo: a homegrown superstar shipped out in his prime, with a fan base left to wonder if its team had just handed another franchise a championship window.

Dallas is betting that Cooper Flagg can rewrite that story.

Until he does, every time Dončić torches a defense in purple and gold, and every time a national figure grabs a microphone in the American Airlines Center, that February night in 2025 will keep coming back, one of the most polarizing trades in recent memory—and, in Trump’s eyes, a contender for the worst ever.