WATCH LIVE: Trump hosts World Series champion LA Dodgers at the White House

By — Will Weissert, Associated Press Will Weissert, Associated Press By — Darlene Superville, Associated Press Darlene Superville, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-live-trump-hosts-world-series-champion-la-dodgers-at-the-white-house Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter WATCH LIVE: Trump hosts World Series champion LA Dodgers at the White House Nation Jul 23, 2026 4:08 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is welcoming Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House on Thursday with a Rose Garden event celebrating their second title in as many years. The event is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. EDT. Watch it live in the video player above. The Dodgers edged the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 last October to become the first repeat champions in a quarter century. Trump feted the team in the White House East Room in April 2025 to mark their 2024 World Series championship. READ MORE: 11th-inning homer lifts Dodgers over Blue Jays to become first repeat World Series champion in 25 years Trump looked forward to meeting Ohtani, the team's celebrated hitter and pitcher. "I'll meet a man who's just about the best pitcher in baseball and just about the best hitter in baseball," Trump said about Ohtani during an event at the Environmental Protection Agency. "So we're going to meet him and all of the people of the Dodgers." Sports teams visiting Trump at the White House have sometimes been a source of controversy dating to his first term. That includes 2018, when the president rescinded an invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after many players suggested they might skip such a trip. This time, Dodgers star right fielder Mookie Betts isn't coming, saying he prefers to spend what is a scheduled day off for the team with his family — even though he did come for the 2025 visit. The team's manager, Dave Roberts, suggested that the trip is more about winning than politics. "My company line, my personal line, is, 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," Roberts said Friday. The Dodgers originally considered coming to the White House this past April during a series with the Washington Nationals, but a crowded early season schedule didn't permit that. Instead, they're in the nation's capital during the off-day between a just-completed series against the Philadelphia Phillies and Friday's opener against the New York Mets in Queens. Championship baseball teams have been coming to the White House since 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant hosted the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They were the first fully professional team to visit the White House and went undefeated that season, though the World Series wasn't established in its modern form until 1903. Since the Dodgers' visit last year, Trump has revamped t