Java, return if trimmed String in List contains String

You need to iterate your list and call String#trim for searching:

String search = "A";
for(String str: myList) {
    if(str.trim().contains(search))
       return true;
}
return false;

OR if you want to perform ignore case search, then use:

search = search.toLowerCase(); // outside loop

// inside the loop
if(str.trim().toLowerCase().contains(search))

With Java 8 Stream API:

List<String> myList = Arrays.asList("  A", "B  ", "  C  ");
return myList.stream().anyMatch(str -> str.trim().equals("B"));