Matt Johnson
The Indiana Hoosiers football team visited the White House and President Donald Trump on Monday with Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza skipping the trip. That drew a reaction from President Trump.
Speaking in front of the Hoosiers’ football team, Trump said that he was “not happy” about Mendoza not visiting the White House.
“I’m not happy, but that’s OK. The reason he didn’t, because he’s at spring training, right?”
President Donald Trump on Fernando Mendoza skipping out on White House visit (H/T ProFootballTalk)
Mendoza, who won Offensive MVP in the CFP National Championship Game, shared with reporters that he wouldn’t be visiting the White House because of practices with the Raiders. He felt it necessary to be there for rookie minicamp and believed the best way to serve his teammates would be by prioritizing practice over celebrating Indiana’s national title.
Not only did the decision to prioritize football likely earn some points with teammates and the Raiders coaching staff, but it also allowed Mendoza to avoid voluntarily throwing himself into political discourse.
Trump did, however, say that Mendoza personally called him to explain why he couldn’t attend. President Trump also said Mendoza “is a big fan of ours” and he wouldn’t have mentioned the star quarterback if he wasn’t.
“If he didn’t do that, believe me, I wouldn’t have even talked about him. I would have not. If he was not here for other reasons, like he didn’t like Trump or he didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t have even mentioned him. I’d go through the whole [speech] — I’d talk about how great [the team was], I wouldn’t even mention the quarterback’s name.”
President Donald Trump on Fernando Mendoza calling him to explain skipping White House visit
Mendoza might’ve preferred if that alleged call wasn’t revealed, but he avoided public scrutiny by skipping the White House visit and he had a valid excuse to go with it.
