Playful presidential push for Popovich-Kerr

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA—A blame game among his party mates is underway as President Trump ends his Asian trip with a stop in the Philippines early next week.

Some Republican Party leaders were pointing fingers at Trump after Democrats won the hotly contested gubernatorial seats in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday.

This early, these GOP stalwarts mindful of a possible fallout in the next general elections, are talking about running away from, not running with Trump in 2020.

More bad news came his way as the President watched domestic developments from Beijing where he held bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A Gallup approval ratings released Monday said a year since Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in a monumental upset, he is breaking records for unpopularity.

Since World War II, no other president has scored ratings as low as Trump during his first year in office. He finds himself as the most unpopular chief executive in modern times amid criticism he has sought to divide more than unite.

Of those who disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, 50 percent say they do so strongly. Only 37% of those polled approve, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Against this backdrop, presidential hopefuls, including Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the NBA team the Dallas Mavericks we featured last week, are probably getting more emboldened to run against Trump three years from now.

If the 59-year old Cuban bares his intention to run against Trump in the Republican primary, he will likely ignite a political phenomenon that’s common in the Philippines but rare in the US—open the floodgates to celebrities also thinking about running for office themselves.

Meanwhile, a movement is pushing, albeit playfully, the 2020 presidential tandem of San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

Popovich and Kerr are being groomed by a group calling itself a “nonpartisan, grassroots movement of NBA fans and American citizens that are demanding more mature, thoughtful, and inspiring executive leadership in Washington, DC.”

Said the group on its website: “Over the last six months, Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr, along with a few other notable NBA coaches, have consistently reacted to our ongoing political malaise with reason, empathy and candor. We think the American people deserve better than our current political horror show. Who better than the two most beloved figures in the NBA?”

The website sells items with a Popovich/Kerr campaign logo to raise proceeds for the American Civil Liberties Union and an eclectic array of crusades, ranging from the Council on American Islamic Relations, to the National Association of Colored Peoples Legal Defense Fund.

“I truly would vote for Pop,” Kerr told reporters before his team beat the Spurs last Thursday. “He would make a great president. All jokes aside, I would vote for him.”

But Kerr ruled out being the candidate for Vice President on a Popovich ticket.