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The Los Angeles Dodgers are scheduled to visit President Donald Trump at the White House to celebrate their World Series victory, the team announced Tuesday.
The team issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying it would visit the White House “in line with years of baseball tradition.”
The Dodgers will visit the White House on April 7th during an away series with Washingtonians.
The announcement comes after months of speculation and uncertainty about whether the 2024 World Series champion will make a ritual trip to the White House while Trump holds his office.
President Joe Biden will speak at the event at the White House held in Washington on Friday, July 2, 2020 to honor the 2020 World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. (AP Photo/Gulio Cortez)
In 2020, when the team’s final World Series won, the team waited until the following summer, when Joe Biden took office to visit.
In 2019, Dodgers star Mookie Betts, who was a member of the Boston Red Sox, chose not to visit the Trump White House to celebrate the team’s victory.
Dodgers co-owners Magic Johnson and Billy Jean King have made critical comments about Trump in the past.
Manager Dave Roberts has been the target of Trump’s criticism in his previous postseason run, but he has said he will not be present if the team wins the World Series in Trump’s first administration. Los Angeles Times Dodgers reporter Jack Harris reported that Roberts will be attending this year’s visit to the White House and respecting his position. “It’s the highest office in our country,” Roberts said.
The team’s decision to visit the White House comes just after the controversial removal of a webpage highlighting baseball legend, Hall of Fame and Dodger Jackie Robinson’s military service. The removal of the story appears to be related to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) and is a policy, one of a handful of similar pages that have been wiped out from the Department of Defense website.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses has issued an official statement denounced the DEI initiative in DOD and praised the “quick compliance” that led to the removal of the page.
The Robinson page on the DOD website has since been restored.
The Dodgers will resume their quest for a World Series Championship Repeat on Thursday, hosting the Detroit Tigers at the team’s home opener. The Dodgers are currently 2-0 and have started the regular season in Japan for MLB’s 2025 Tokyo Series early.
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