As LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday they were swamped by reporters. The three UCLA basketball players had been detained in China after being accused of stealing designer sunglasses from a high-end mall, and had been released after Donald Trump intervened and talked to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Reporters in LA wanted to know if the players had the sunglasses and whether they had let their college down. But the president had his own question. “Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!” tweeted Trump on Wednesday morning.

UCLA had been in Shanghai for the Pac-12 China Game, a season-opening win over Georgia Tech. LiAngelo Ball is the brother of Lonzo Ball, the Los Angeles Lakers rookie. On Tuesday, Trump said he had intervened on the players’ behalf during his own visit to Asia. “What they did was unfortunate. You know, you’re talking about very long prison sentences,” Trump said. “[The Chinese authorities] do not play games.” Before adding Xi had been “terrific” in attempting to resolve the situation.

Trump has been vocal about sports recently. In September he said that any NFL player who protested during the national anthem is a “son of a bitch”.