White House
Celebrates NBA Season With Controversial Vid
… Shooting Paper Towels In Puerto Rico
Published
President Trump‘s White House dug up an 8-year-old, uber-controversial video to commemorate the start of the NBA Season … posting a clip of POTUS infamously tossing paper towel rolls at people in Puerto Rico.
The video came from the official White House X account, with 2.9 followers, and showed a montage of Trump from his October 3, 2017, visit to Puerto Rico — when he threw the rolls into the packed crowd — set to Roundball Rock, NBC’s famed NBA theme song.
The post was captioned, “President Trump knows ball.”
President Trump knows ball. pic.twitter.com/j0eAUUP4we
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 21, 2025
@WhiteHouse
Of course, the October 3, 2017, moment was one of the most memorable from Trump’s first presidency. He was in Puerto Rico to survey the damage after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island.
The death toll varies widely, but officials in P.R. estimate around 3,000 perished in the storm. There was an estimated $90 billion in property damage, too.
At the time, many people found the U.S. president’s actions to be out of line. San Juan’s mayor, Carmen YulÃn Cruz, described the scene as “insulting.”
The NBA season officially tipped off on Tuesday, and is just a few hours old … and they’ve already got themselves a controversy involving the President of the United States.