The 2025 World Series champion Dodgers showed up at the White House Thursday, and the press couldn't quite bring itself to call it what it is — normal.
President Trump hosted the back-to-back champions in the Rose Garden for a ceremony celebrating their Game 7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, the franchise's second straight title. Most of the roster attended. Manager Dave Roberts spoke. Retired ace Clayton Kershaw flew in. Trump presented a white No. 47 Dodgers jersey with his name on the back and told the team, "I'm thrilled to say welcome back to the White House. And maybe we'll see you again next year, I hope."
Championship teams have visited the White House since Ulysses S. Grant hosted the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. Roberts kept it straightforward: "I hope that we get this invitation every year, because that's the goal, to win a championship, to get this invitation to the White House. And I'm not a politician, and I'm doing something that teams have done for decades."
Two players skipped it. Mookie Betts said he wanted to spend the off day with his family and didn't want his absence viewed as political. Kiké Hernández, on a rehab assignment in Oklahoma City, told Fox he "probably wouldn't have gone anyways." Hernández previously voiced support for fans affected by ICE raids in Los Angeles, and the Dodgers donated more than $1 million to organizations assisting those affected. His call. His right.
But the Los Angeles Times framed the entire visit through the lens of "debate among Dodgers fans" over Trump's "anti-immigration policies" — then buried at the bottom of its story that Dodgers chairman Mark Walter's insurance companies and Guggenheim Partners are under federal investigation for potential financial improprieties. No charges filed. The company says it's cooperating. The Times didn't connect those dots, but Dissenter will: the owner faces federal scrutiny, and his team just shook the president's hand on camera.
CBS News reached all the way back to 2018, when Trump rescinded an Eagles invitation after players planned to skip. The Gateway Pundit ran Fox contributor Joe Concha dismissing Hernández as a ".237 lifetime hitter" who was "not exactly key" to the title. Neither framing serves the reader. One treats a celebration as scandal; the other turns a personal decision into a culture-war dunk.
Here's what happened: a baseball team accepted a White House invitation, as teams have done for over 150 years. Most players came. A couple didn't. The republic survived.
The real tell is what the press does next time a champion visits a president it prefers. When the Dodgers visited Biden in 2021 after their 2020 title, nobody called it controversial. That double standard isn't subtle — it's the whole playbook.
