Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Monday elaborated on a cryptic warning he issued to the Ricketts family in February, suggesting he would take ads out saying they’re doing a “rotten job” with the Chicago Cubs.
“I’ll start doing ads about their baseball team. That it’s not properly run or that they haven’t done a good job in the brokerage business lately,” Trump said in an interview with the Washington Post editorial board.
Asked if he would launch those attack ads as the president, Trump responded, “No, not while I am president.”
In February, Trump via Twitter denounced a super political action committee opposing his campaign that is primarily funded by Marlene Ricketts, whose family owns the Cubs.
“I hear the Rickets (sic) family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!” Trump wrote.
Asked by the Post what he meant, Trump first said, “I don’t know these people. Those Ricketts.”
“I actually said they ought to focus on the Chicago Cubs and, you know, stop playing around. They spent millions of dollars fighting me in Florida,” Trump said.
“I’ll start spending on them. I’ll start taking ads telling them all what a rotten job they’re doing with the Chicago Cubs. I mean, they are spending on me. I mean, so am I allowed to say that?”
Trump’s initial Twitter post apparently was in response to a story noting that Ricketts, the family matriarch who lives in Nebraska, had put $3 million into the Our Principles PAC in January. The PAC had spent about $3.5 million in ads, mailings and other efforts to oppose Trump, federal records showed in February.
Asked to respond to Trump’s latest comments, a spokesman for the family referred to team Chairman Tom Ricketts’ response last month.
“We stand up for what we believe in,” Ricketts said then. “We support the causes we think are important. That is what America should be.”
Marlene Ricketts is married to Joe Ricketts, the billionaire T.D. Ameritrade founder. In October 2009, the couple formed a trust on behalf of their family that acquired a 95 percent controlling interest in the Cubs and Wrigley Field. Both Marlene and Joe Ricketts are conservatives, and son Pete is governor of Nebraska.
While Trump said he’s ready to criticize the family over how the Cubs are run, the team made it to the National League championship series last year and is considered by many as a World Series contender this year.
