WASHINGTON — As the global economy spiraled in response to President Donald Trump’s trade war, he welcomed the 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday for the traditional White House celebration and seized the opportunity to insult the Dodgers’ home state senators: California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.
“We have a couple of senators here. I just don't particularly like them, so I won't introduce,” Trump said, drawing laughs from the crowd.
Neither senator was in attendance, according to their respective offices. Padilla and Schiff are no friends of the president, with Schiff in particular facing Trump’s frequent ire dating back to his days leading House investigations during and after Trump’s first term. In his final hours in office, President Joe Biden pardoned Schiff as part of an effort to protect members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters from prosecution by the new administration.
Trump said last month those pardons were invalid, though his arguments lack any basis in the law. Trump has frequently threatend Schiff with criminal prosecution.
A spokesperson for Senator Schiff tells me he was not in attendance at the White House this morning.
— Cassie Semyon (@casssemyon) April 7, 2025
A spokesperson for Senator Padilla told me the senator was flying back from California to DC at the time of the White House event. @SpecNews1SoCal https://t.co/hNG29pwJUD
The trip also came almost a month after a Department of Defense webpage describing Brooklyn Dodgers great and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military service was restored after it had come down.
That development came after pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down — which the Pentagon said was a mistake — amid the department’s effort to remove content singling out the contributions by women and minority groups, which the Trump administration considers “DEI" (diversity, equity, and inclusion).
Neither Robinson nor any other previous Dodgers greats were mentioned at the ceremony.
Trump has long been a sports fan — he spent the weekend golfing in Florida and said he won the championship at his club in Jupiter, Florida, drawing criticism from Democrats — and used major sporting events to boost his profile during last year’s campaign and since winning back the White House, including attending the Super Bowl in New Orleans in February.
On Monday, he stood next to baseball’s biggest star — Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani — and praised the dominant pitcher and hitter for winning the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the first player in MLB history to steal 50 bases and hit 50 home runs in a single season and for looking “like a movie star.”
There’s been some debate in the U.S. sports world about the tradition of championship teams visiting the White House following their victories, but no Dodger player skipped the event with the exception of star first baseman Freddie Freeman, who is rehabbing from an injury. During his first term, Trump disinvited the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors in 2018 after some players said they planned to skip their respective visits.
The U.S. Women’s National Team also declined to visit the White House in 2019 after winning the World Cup.
Trump specifically highlighted and shook hands with star shortstop Mookie Betts, who skipped a White House visit in 2019 while playing for the Boston Red Sox. Betts told reporters last week he planned to make this year’s visit not based on politics, but because he wanted to be there with his teammates and felt his decision to skip the 2019 visit was a distraction.
The 32-year-old Betts is the lone Black player on the Dodgers who returned from last season’s World Series team.
“Nobody else in this clubhouse has to go through a decision like this except me,” Betts said over the weekend. “That’s what makes it tough. But it is what it is. I’m not trying to make this political by any means at all. All it is is just me being with my team to celebrate something. It’s a privilege to get an invitation like this. I just want to be there with them.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is Black and Japanese, said in 2019 he wouldn’t visit a Trump White House if he was with a team that won a World Series, also told reporters last week he would do it this year out of respect for the office.
The NHL’s reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers became the first team to visit Trump in his second term when they were honored during a ceremony in the East Room in early February.
The White House also said recently the NFL’s Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles accepted their invitation for April 28.
While Trump did not invite any WNBA teams to visit the White House during his first term, they were welcomed during the Biden administration. The New York Liberty’s 2024 Finals MVP, Jonquel Jones, said last year she would not attend if the team decided to go this summer.
Spectrum News' Cassie Semyon and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
