The Los Angeles Dodgers will be without another prominent member of their team as they visit the White House this year.
Dodgers star Mookie Betts revealed this week in an interview that he will be skipping on the team’s visit to see President Donald Trump later this month. Betts told Jack Harris of The California Post that his decision had nothing to do with politics and that he would rather be spending that time with his family instead.
“I’m not trying to make this a whole big deal,” Betts said. “We just had a baby. You don’t get many days off. They’re coming [on the road trip]. And just want to hang out with the fam. That’s really kind of it. But people are gonna make it a whole bunch of other stuff.
“If I do [go], people are gonna hate me,” added Betts. “If I don’t, people are gonna hate me. So instead of trying to make everyone else happy, I’m gonna think about myself and my family. People are gonna try to drag me into politics, just because I am who I am. That’s just the cards I’m dealt. So it is what it is.”
The eight-time All-Star and ex-AL MVP Betts notably declined to visit the White House during Trump’s first term in 2019 after his then-team the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. But he accompanied the Dodgers, both in 2021 when they visited President Joe Biden in the White House and then in 2025 when they visited Trump during Trump’s second term.
The Dodgers are planning to visit the Oval Office on July 23 this year, in between respective road series against the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets. But Betts, who just welcomed his second daughter with wife Brianna in April, will now become the latest well-known member of the Dodgers roster to pass on this year’s visit.
