{"id":180546,"date":"2026-03-06T09:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180546\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:54:24","slug":"alex-rodriguez-joins-trumps-white-house-fete-for-lionel-messi-inter-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180546\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Rodriguez joins Trump’s White House fete for Lionel Messi, Inter Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi and MLS Cup champions Inter Miami<\/a> weren\u2019t the only world-class athletes at the White House on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Yankee and current Timberwolves co-owner Alex Rodriguez joined Inter Miami\u2019s celebration in the East Room of the White House, appearing with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.<\/p>\n

MLS commissioner Don Garber was also in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A-Rod has no formal ties to the MLS club, but he has long been associated with the city of Miami, and it appeared that President Donald Trump invited him up for the ceremony taking place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump receives gifts from Inter Miami CF CEO and Managing Owner Jorge Mas (R) as Lionel Messi (L) of Inter Miami looks on during an event celebrating the 2025 MLS Cup Champions. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The president posed for a photo with A-Rod in the Oval Office before the ceremony and shouted him out while he spoke during the ceremony in the East Room, saying that he was a \u201cbig fan\u201d of the baseball star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump also shared a story about watching Rodriguez play for the Yankees while sitting with late owner George Steinbrenner.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s ceremony honored the MLS Cup-winning club co-owned by soccer legend David Beckham, a team that features arguably one of the greatest players in the sport\u2019s history, Messi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump and the soccer icon walked into the East Room together and later shook hands in front of the crowd at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former MLB player Alex Rodriquez speaks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during an event celebrating the 2025 MLS Cup Champions Inter Miami CF in the East Room of the White House. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Messi helped present Trump with a No. 47 Inter Miami jersey with his name on the back, a bejeweled pink team soccer ball and a limited edition Tudor watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump heaped praise on Messi and called the Argentine better than Pel\u00e9, whom the president recalled watching when he played for the New York Cosmos in the 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s better, him or Pel\u00e9?\u201d Trump asked the Inter Miami players as they stood behind him, then pointed at Messi.\u00a0\u201cI think he is, but he is pretty good. Pel\u00e9 is pretty good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump is gifted a jewelled soccer ball with his signature on it from Inter Miami CF captain Lionel Messi. REUTERS<\/p>\n

There was also an awkward moment during the event when the president brought up fellow soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who visited the White House in November, while invoking his youngest son.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Barron] is a big fan of yours,\u201d Trump said while addressing Messi. \u201cHe thinks you\u2019re just a great person. He\u2019s a tremendous fan of yours, as well as a gentleman named Ronaldo\u2026 Cristiano is great. Some big champions, some great, great athletes in that sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi and MLS Cup champions Inter Miami weren\u2019t the only world-class athletes at the White House on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85339,409,1660,123,125,124,3817,2062,110,9102],"class_list":["post-180546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-donald-trump","tag-lionel-messi","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mlb","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}