Shohei Ohtani got himself a nice compliment from the commander-in-chief this week.
The Los Angeles Dodgers visited President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday in honor of their victory in the 2024 World Series. The Dodgers sensation Ohtani was front and center for the festivities and at one point was complimented on his physical appearance by Trump as Trump was reading off Ohtani’s accolades from last season.
“He looks like a movie star,” said Trump of Ohtani. “This kid’s got a great future, I’m telling you.”
The reigning NL MVP Ohtani also later posed for pictures in the Oval Office with Trump, who went on to call him “an amazing athlete and person.”
After spending the first six seasons of his MLB career with the Los Angeles Angels and failing to even make the playoffs once, Ohtani joined the Dodgers ahead of the 2024 campaign and went on to win the World Series in his very first season with them. As such, Monday marked Ohtani’s first opportunity to visit to the White House as a defending champion.
Interestingly enough, one of Ohtani’s star teammates on the Dodgers, Mookie Betts, had an opportunity to visit Trump at the White House in 2018 as a member of the then-World Series champion Boston Red Sox but turned it down at the time. Betts changed his stance for this time around though (explaining to reporters why he did so) and was notably in attendance along with Ohtani and the rest of the Dodgers on Monday.
