President Trump gave a warm welcome Monday to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the White House as part of a tradition of greeting the team that won the World Series.
The 2024 World Series champions filed into the East Room as attendees cheered, “Let’s go Dodgers, let’s go.” The Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in October.
“That’s a good-looking team,” Mr. Trump said.
The Dodgers were set to play the Washington Nationals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mr. Trump said star player Shohei Ohtani “looks like a movie star” and has a “good future” ahead of him.
“All year the Dodgers faced adversity, you entered the playoffs battered and bruised, but not broken,” the president said.
The team last visited the White House in 2021, with then-President Biden to celebrate their 2020 World Series win.
According to the White House Historical Association, the first World Series champions to visit the White House were the Washington Senators in 1925. The team won the 1924 World Series against the New York Giants. They visited President Calvin Coolidge in the White House in September 1925.
This visit was a switch-up for team manager Dave Roberts, who said in 2019 that he wouldn’t visit the White House during President Trump’s first term if the team had the chance.
“I’m going,” Mr. Roberts told reporters last month. “I respect the position. It’s the highest office in our country, certainly in the world, so, looking forward to it.”
Mookie Betts was also in attendance after rejecting the visit in 2019, when he was with the Boston Red Sox.
“That guy can play, can’t he?” Mr. Trump said.
The president said that he used to play baseball but wasn’t very good.
“I wasn’t fast,” he said.
He said he hopes the Dodgers return to the White House next year. He said he would give the team a tour of the Oval Office after the ceremony.
Dodgers Chairman Mark Walter said he was “pleased to participate in the tradition of bringing champions to the White House.”
Star pitcher Clayton Kershaw spoke highly of his team, saying it’s a “true joy” to tell the story of their victory.
Mr. Kershaw then presented Mr. Trump with his own Dodgers jersey that reads “Trump” with the number “47.”
