Three UCLA basketball players who were held in China on suspicion of shoplifting have returned to the US, where an indignant President Trump greeted them with a tweet.

“Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!” the president tweeted Wednesday morning.

Trump has said he sought the help of Chinese President Xi Jinping in securing the release of freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley.

The hoopsters were detained in Hangzhou last week amid allegations of shoplifting sunglasses at a Louis Vuitton shop before the Bruins beat Georgia Tech in their season-opening game in Shanghai as part of the Pac-12 China game.

The rest of the UCLA team returned home on Saturday.

“What they did was unfortunate,” Trump told reporters in Manila during his 12-day trip across Asia.

Noting that the trio could have faced long prison sentences, Trump described Xi’s response as “terrific.”

He had raised the issue with Xi at a dinner held during his state visit to Beijing.

“The relevant case involving three students has already been resolved according to law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said without elaborating when asked about Trump’s discussion about the matter with Xi.

A senior White House official said the players had been given relatively light treatment due to Trump’s intervention.

“It’s in large part because the president brought it up,” the official told Reuters.