Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic and Jack Harris and Zain Khan of the California Post report that the Dodgers are expected to make the trip despite recent calls to cancel it in light of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, with the former citing a league source and the latter citing the White House. The Dodgers declined to comment to both outlets.
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No set date has been reported, but teams typically visit the White House during their regular-season series against the Washington Nationals. This year, that series is April 3-5 for the Dodgers.
President Donald Trump posted an invitation to the Dodgers on social media shortly after their dramatic Game 7 victory:
“Congratulations to the LA Dodgers, a game won by incredible CHAMPIONS!!!” he wrote in Truth Social. “A lesser group of men could never have won that game, or Game 6, for that matter. Many stars made all of this happen. Also, congratulations to the owners. What a great job they’ve done. SEE YOU ALL IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!”
Any indication of the team’s plans to accept that offer was slow to come before Wednesday, and Dodgers president Stan Kasten told the Los Angeles Times last weekend that he had no update on the matter.
While there was backlash for attending the Trump White House last year, the team still remained a united front and had no notable resistance despite past comments and actions, such as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saying he would have skipped a visit in 2019 and Mookie Betts skipping a visit to the Boston Red Sox after 2018.
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Kasten claimed that “all” of the players wanted to go in 2025, although at least one wasn’t too enthusiastic. Kiké Hernández, a Puerto Rican fan favorite who has criticized Trump in the past, described it as “a lose-lose situation” in comments to radio reporter Dave Vassegh.
Just as he did in 2025, Roberts described a possible trip as respectful of the office of president in comments to the Times last weekend:
“In my case, I stay out of it: I’m a baseball manager,” Roberts told me Saturday at the Dodgers fan festival. “That’s my job.
“I was raised – by a man who served our country for 30 years – to respect the highest office in our country. For me, no matter who’s in office, I’m going to go to the White House. I’ve never tried to be a politician… For me, I’m going to continue to try to do what tradition says and I’m not going to try to make political statements, because I’m not a politician.”
However, this time not everything is the same in the White House. There was certainly some tension in Los Angeles in 2025 over Trump’s response to the wildfires that devastated part of the city, but the president’s approval rating has hit a new low recently in the wake of, among other things, ICE’s deadly actions in Minnesota (not to mention its continued presence in Los Angeles and other communities) and lingering questions about the Epstein Files.
The Dodgers have apparently still opted to proceed as they did last year, but it remains to be seen if they present the same united front.