Trump will welcome the World Series champion Dodgers to the White House

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 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

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 That includes 2018, when the president rescinded an invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after many players suggested they might skip such a trip.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 at 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 the Rose Garden and added a patio area reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Trump, a baseball fan and New York native, has for years been closely associated with the New York Yankees, whose late, longtime owner George Steinbrenner was a close friend. But the president singled out the New York Mets at a rally in Georgia on Wednesday, when he praised the ownership of the local Atlanta Braves and slammed the Mets for their sky-high payroll and losing record.

Trump was joined on stage during that event by former Braves manager Brian Snitker, and Mike Plant, president and CEO of the Braves Development Company.

“I like baseball,” Trump said before adding, ”You know, the Mets have the highest salary in baseball, and they lose all the time. And I’m like, maybe we can steal this guy.”

“There are teams like that, where they never go down,” Trump said. “Then you have other teams — ‘We’re rebuilding.’ They’ve been rebuilding for years. I don’t want to mention teams ’cause I know all the owners. They’re all friends of mine.”

President Donald Trump speaks at Wheeler High School, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani looks on after striking out during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

President Donald Trump appears on stage at Wheeler High School, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Tropical Storm Bertha churned toward a second landfall in Texas on Thursday after grazing southern Louisiana in a slow crawl that triggered heavy surf and some flooding along the Gulf Coast but kept the heaviest rains offshore.

Bertha was located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Galveston, Texas, late Thursday morning as it crept westward, the National Hurricane Center said. Still packing sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph), it was expected to remain a tropical storm until moving onshore later in the day.

No deaths or significant damage have been reported since Bertha formed Monday in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle. The storm triggered some coastal flooding as its center first struck land Wednesday in Louisiana southwest of New Orleans, but its heaviest rains stayed over the Gulf waters.

A tropical storm warning remained in effect Thursday along the Gulf Coast from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Sargent, Texas. The hurricane center said Bertha could still cause up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of storm surge along the coast and trigger isolated flash flooding from heavy rains in coastal and south Texas.

Forecasters expected the storm to weaken rapidly after moving onshore and dissipate over inland Texas by Friday.

As the storm approached Louisiana on Wednesday, children splashed in the floodwaters as onlookers watched the surge at the Lake Pontchartrain estuary. Residents mowed their lawns even as streets filled up with water.

Tropical storm force winds extended felt as far as 160 miles (260 kilometers) from the storm's center, the hurricane center said.

Strong gales earlier in the week knocked over a Waffle House sign onto a car in Panama City Beach, Florida. Heavy surf and the threat of rip tides had prompted warnings at Gulf Coast beaches for swimmers to stay out of the water.

Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Arthur in June brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern U.S.

In the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto churned far from land Thursday. The hurricane was more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

The hurricane center said swells generated by Fausto could cause life-threatening surf and rip tides in parts of southern California.

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

This NOAA satellite image taken at 11:40 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, shows Tropical Storm Bertha in the Gulf of Mexico moving toward the edge of Louisiana. (NOAA via AP)

Children play near breaking waves on West End Pier on Lake Pontchartrain as Tropical Storm Bertha approaches the Louisiana Coast Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)