Messi has long steered clear of politics. Does his visit to Trump's White House mark a change?

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Assisted by a glittering, pink soccer ball, Lionel Messi crossed yet another frontier with his visit to the White House.

Until Thursday, the global soccer superstar had been equally adept at dodging defenders on the field and political leaders, especially those in his own country of Argentina. There were questions about whether he would even appear with the rest of Inter Miami to celebrate their MLS Cup win at the White House.

As the team assembled in the room, he wasn't among their ranks; instead, he walked in alongside U.S. President Donald Trump and team owner Jorge Mas Santos and later presented Trump with the bedazzled ball.

Although Messi was silent throughout, his appearance seemed to speak volumes for a player whose politics have largely been shrouded in mystery.

When Argentina, captained by Messi, won the World Cup in 2022, the team declined to go to then-President Alberto Fernández's Casa Rosada, or Pink House. Argentina's current president — and Trump ally — Javier Milei has vocally praised Messi, but has yet to secure a public appearance or even photo together. A year ago, Messi was invited by then-U.S. President Joe Biden's administration to be presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom but could not attend because of a scheduling conflict.

In Argentina, the visit caused surprise and even dismay, particularly among those who appreciated the national team captain for not getting involved in politics, a trait that had distinguished him from his predecessor, Diego Maradona. (Some, though, thought his appearance could benefit Argentina as it gears up for its World Cup matches in the U.S.)

Kirk Bowman, a professor at Georgia Tech's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs who studies soccer and politics in Latin America, isn't surprised by Messi's visit, though.

“He is very ‘long-termism’ in his career, both as a player but also as someone who has a very strong team building long-term wealth,” Bowman said, pointing to his myriad investments — including his equity in Inter Miami itself.

“He’s also embedded very strongly in Miami as a community, which is far more conservative as a soccer community than other parts of the United States,” Bowman added.

Messi stood to the side of Trump as the president offered comments on Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. At the end, the soccer star offered some applause. Messi's supporters have defended him by saying he isn't fluent in English, a perception Bowman says serves as “an extra layer of brand protection.”

Representatives for Inter Miami and Messi did not respond to The Associated Press’ requests for comment on the visit, though Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano was asked about it during a media availability Friday.

“I thought we would talk about football but I guess I’m not lucky. We were following the protocol that is practically a tradition for a team to visit the White House when it becomes champion,” Mascherano said.

He said the team spent a couple hours at the White House and that the “contact with Trump was what you saw on TV and not much more than that.”

The image of Messi with Trump led some fans to invoke the anti-American stance of the late Maradona, Argentina’s other great football idol. The captain of the 1986 World Cup-winning team was an active supporter of leaders like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. He even had an image of the guerrilla fighter Ernesto “Che” Guevara tattooed on one of his arms.

Messi, by contrast, has stayed largely silent on issues in the various countries he's lived in, whether Argentina, Spain, France or the United States. His career at FC Barcelona, spanning from his teen years to his exit in 2021, coincided with a politically charged period in Spain when Catalonia's separatist movement seriously threatened to break off the northeastern region from the rest of the nation. Messi, however, steered clear of any political statements either for or against the independence push, which at its height divided Catalonia’s 5 million voters in half.

He deftly knew how to preserve his status as an idol of Barça’s divided fans, sticking to scoring goals and winning titles. He could be heard chanting “Visca Barça y visca Catalunya!” (“Long live Barça and long live Catalonia”) while celebrating a title, but the rallying cry was fairly standard for players and largely lacked political overtones.

He otherwise did not speak the local Catalan language but he only had nice things to say about the city he moved to when he was 13. In an interview with Catalan television channel Tv3 in 2024, Messi said that his “children are Catalans” and that “I feel like I am from Barcelona.”

Glimpses of some political leanings came in 2011 and 2020 interviews with La Garganta Poderosa, an Argentine magazine on the left. In the first interview, Messi spoke positively of Guevara, and in the latter, amid the coronavirus pandemic, he called inequality one of society's most pressing problems.

Overall, though, it's unlikely Messi will edge further into politics, Bowman says.

“I don’t think he’s really comfortable being political, but he’s not uncomfortable being used in politics as long as the net benefit is positive,” he said.

Bowman pointed to Messi's commercial contract with Saudi Arabia's tourism board and the “sportswashing” allegations that have followed. He also compared Messi's approach with the kingdom's typical “tarnish clause.”

“I think Messi is seen in the same way,” Bowman said. “He will participate in things as long as it doesn’t tarnish Brand Messi.”

Sen reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Anne M. Peterson in Portland, Oregon; Davidde Corran in New York and Carlos Rodriguez in Mexico City contributed reporting.

Lionel Messi, left, and teammates listen to President Donald Trump speak during an event to honor the 2025 Major League Soccer champions Inter Miami in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump poses for a photo as head coach Javier Mascherano, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas present gifts at an event to honor the 2025 Major League Soccer champions Inter Miami in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Lionel Messi arrives with President Donald Trump for an event to honor the 2025 Major League Soccer champions Inter Miami CF in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump receives a soccer ball trophy from Lionel Messi during an event to honor the 2025 Major League Soccer champions Inter Miami in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Lionel Messi arrives with President Donald Trump at an event to honor the 2025 Major League Soccer champions Inter Miami CF in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel, two semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday, as tensions flared in Israel's separate but related fight against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The halt in communication was likely meant to increase pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump over negotiations on the Iran war ceasefire and loosening the Islamic Republic's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gas and other commodities that normally pass through it. Trump then could potentially push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or slow the advance of his forces, which have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington. Instead, he sounded an optimistic note about the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, while cautioning that there's no guarantee of reaching "a deal that’s acceptable.”

The reports by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, come as the conflicts in Iran and Lebanon have increasingly become conjoined. Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon, where Hezbollah remains one of Iran's chief allies in its self-described “axis of resistance” against Israel.

A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told The Associated Press that Iran had not communicated at all on Tuesday after saying that a ceasefire needed to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to continue.

Israel and the U.S. maintain the fighting in Lebanon is separate from the Iran war talks.

Meanwhile, year-on-year inflation in Iran reached a level in May unseen since World War II, underlining the economic pain average Iranians are facing. While the U.S. is eager to ease the Islamic Republic's grip on the strait — through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime — Iran faces economic challenges as its oil-backed economy remains under a U.S. naval blockade.

Economic pressure touched off nationwide protests in Iran in 2017 into 2018, when rising food prices sparked demonstrations that killed over 20 people and saw hundreds arrested. The next year, an increase in government-subsidized gasoline prices caused protests that saw over 300 people reportedly killed.

Then came the protests over the collapsing value of Iran's currency, the rial, at the start of this year. They were the most intense demonstrations to shake the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution and the chaotic years that followed. Iran's theocracy met January's protests with a crackdown on demonstrators in January that killed over 7,000 people, according to activists' estimates.

Now, even as hard-liners hold gun-handling workshops and organize marriages under the shadow of a ballistic missile to bolster spirits, experts note there could be new demonstrations if people find themselves priced out of feeding their families.

“I have no doubt that if Trump leaves (Iran without a formal peace deal) ... most probably, we will see something like January by the end of summer because of the economic and social situations," analyst Mohsen Jalilvand said in a video published by Iran's Fararu news website.

Iran's Central Bank said the consumer price index, which measures a basket of goods and services, reached 77.2% in May compared with the year before. The rate is 8.5% higher than in April, the bank added. Inflation in daily and general needs — like medicine, taxi fares, tobacco and communication fees — rose 113.8% from the year before.

A private economic think tank in Iran, the Bamdad Institute of Economic Studies, described the current figures as “an unprecedented rate since World War II.” Iran’s Central Bank did not acknowledge the significance of the figures.

The previous record came in 1942. During the war, the British and Soviets invaded Iran and took over its railway, disrupting food supplies. The lack of food, worsened by a poor harvest, sparked hyperinflation and a famine. Hunger and a typhus outbreak killed many.

Airstrikes this year have greatly damaged Iran's businesses and its oil industry, Meanwhile, the U.S. blockade has been targeting Iranian crude oil shipments trying to reach the international market, a key source of hard revenue. Tax revenues have been depressed by businesses struggling even after the fighting paused.

The rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 in 2015, now trades at over 1.7 million to $1.

“We will definitely have higher prices," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned in May. "We are fighting, and we must accept this hardship.”

Tehran-based economist Saeed Leilaz, speaking to the AP, warned that annual inflation in Iran could reach 80%.

"Iran’s society cannot tolerate above 25%” annual inflation, he said.

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran. Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Qlaileh village, as it seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike is seen through a shattered window of the Jabal Amel Hospital, in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo)

A nurse looks through a shattered window of the Jabal Amel Hospital into a destroyed building that was hit Monday in an Israeli airstrike, in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather on paddleboards in shallow water as cargo and service vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Pedestrians and vehicles cross an intersection around Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Men sit at the gate of a mosque at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman walks at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People carry packages at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)