Juventus visited the White House<\/a> during the Club World Cup. U.S. internationals Tim Weah and Weston McKennie were in attendance, and at one point Trump began discussing transgender athletes and asked the players if a woman could make their team.<\/p>\nMessi\u2019s biggest interaction was far less consequential, by comparison, with Trump asking if Messi was better than Brazilian legend Pel\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Still, like in most events at the White House, there was no way the ceremony could or would \u201cstick to sports.\u201d Trump, with Messi and other Inter Miami players standing behind him, began his speech with an update on Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir navy is gone, 24 ships in three days, that\u2019s a lot of ships,\u201d the president said at one point, as Messi tucked his chin into his chest and watched from just over Trump\u2019s right shoulder, occasionally glancing around the room or at his feet. Messi smiled slightly when Trump joked, after listing out the U.S.\u2019s military successes, that, \u201cother than that (Iran is) doing quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n
After spending six minutes on Iran, Trump pivoted to Cuba. He praised Rubio for the work he\u2019s done and then pointed at Mas, whose late father, Jorge Mas Canosa, was a powerful political broker fighting against Fidel Castro\u2019s regime with the Cuban American National Foundation, an influential lobbying firm, of which the Inter Miami owner is now chairman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening with Cuba is amazing and we want to fix this one first, but that will be just a question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba,\u201d Trump said, looking back at Mas, who smiled. Political discourse continued, with Trump discussing the operation in Venezuela in which the U.S. captured Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, before, more than eight minutes into his speech, pivoting to the express purpose of the event: honoring Inter Miami.<\/p>\n
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\n Messi helped Inter Miami win its first MLS Cup title in 2025 (Alex Wong \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get to the reason that we are here, and it\u2019s a beautiful reason because we are honoring truly talented people,\u201d Trump said. \u201cToday we are thrilled to host the 2025 MLS Cup champions Inter Miami. Great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he turned and shook Messi\u2019s hand \u2014\u00a0thrusting the Argentinian star again into a spotlight moment with the American president.<\/p>\n
Messi missed a ceremony in which President Joe Biden honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country\u2019s highest civilian honor, in January 2025, due to \u201cscheduling conflicts and prior commitments. Messi\u2019s communication team released a statement that said he \u201cappreciated the gesture and noted he hopes to have the opportunity to meet Biden in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump alluded to that absence when he turned to Messi.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my distinct privilege to say what no American president has ever had the chance to say before: Welcome to the White House, Lionel Messi,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
He then joked that his son, Barron, told him excitedly that Messi was coming and that Trump didn\u2019t know. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of things going on,\u201d he said, prompting laughter from Messi and the rest of the room. Trump mentioned that Messi met Barron earlier in the visit.<\/p>\n
At one point, Trump told a story about watching Pel\u00e9 with the NASL\u2019s New York Cosmos in the 1970s and then turned and asked the team, \u201cWho\u2019s better? Him or Pel\u00e9?\u201d The team responded by signaling that it was Messi.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The president then rattled off highlights from Inter Miami\u2019s season and its results in the Club World Cup, highlighting Luis Su\u00e1rez\u2019s performance there and Messi\u2019s free kick against Porto. He also noted forward Tadeo Allende\u2019s playoff scoring streak and Argentine star Rodrigo De Paul\u2019s goal in the MLS Cup final.<\/p>\n
Trump also commented several times on how \u201cgood looking\u201d the team was and jokingly asked if they had any \u201cbad-looking players.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have a lot of fun with these guys,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can imagine when they win how they celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump spoke for about 25 minutes in total before handing the stage to Mas, who mentioned his parents\u2019 journey from Cuba and how that influenced the club\u2019s \u201cFreedom to Dream\u201d motto. He then thanked Trump for \u201csharing this championship with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mas, Messi and Miami coach Javier Mascherano then presented Trump with the gifts, which included the ball, jersey and an engraved watch. Mas took a photo with Trump holding the No. 47 jersey, while Messi smiled and presented Trump with the ball.<\/p>\n
That final gesture, as well as Messi standing beside Trump during the ceremony, will undoubtedly stick with Messi. It will stand out, though, because Messi had been so diligent about avoiding similar photo opportunities throughout his career.<\/p>\n
Inter Miami, in the area to play D.C. United on Saturday at the Baltimore Ravens\u2019 M&T Bank Stadium, will feel that its captain fulfilled another important obligation for the club that he has transformed into a global brand, one now recognized and projected around the world. Others may see Messi standing behind Trump, silently smiling, as a letdown by an athlete who had otherwise avoided being used as a political tool.<\/p>\n
Trump invited the team and Messi to the Oval Office, where he said he had a gift for the two-time reigning MLS MVP. The team first stayed for a few photos with members of the Cabinet, though, before filing out of the room, and with that ending a very public and very surreal affair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 As the entire Inter Miami team stood on a set of bleachers behind a podium with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4101,17157,17159,17160,10151,17143,17153,17145,17147,17158,17149,8095,17152,5429,17156,17148,123,125,124,17155,5692,16076,17144,17142,17146,4788,14193,14240,14243,17162,17150,17154,2062,17151,17161,8005,4798],"class_list":["post-180595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-argentina","tag-atlanta-united-fc","tag-austin-fc","tag-charlotte-fc","tag-chicago-fire","tag-club-de-foot-montreal","tag-colorado-rapids","tag-columbus-crew","tag-dc-united","tag-fc-cincinnati","tag-fc-dallas","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-houston-dynamo","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-los-angeles-fc","tag-los-angeles-galaxy","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-minnesota-united-fc","tag-mls","tag-nashville-soccer-club","tag-new-england-revolution","tag-new-york-city-fc","tag-new-york-red-bulls","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-portland-timbers","tag-real-salt-lake","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-seattle-sounders-fc","tag-soccer","tag-sporting-kc","tag-st-louis-city-sc","tag-toronto-fc","tag-vancouver-whitecaps-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180595","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=180595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lionel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264999128-scaled.jpg\")
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