The Indiana Hoosiers football team visited the White House and President Donald Trump on Monday, while Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza did not attend the visit. There was a reaction from President Trump on this.
Speaking before the Hoosiers football team, Trump said he was "not happy" about Mendoza not coming to the White House.
"I'm not happy, but that's OK. The reason he doesn't do it is because he's in spring training, OK?"
President Donald Trump on Fernando Mendoza skipping White House visit (H/T ProFootballTalk)
Mendoza, who won Offensive MVP in the CFP National Championship Game, shared with reporters that he would not be visiting the White House because of practicing with the Raiders. He felt it was important to be there for rookie minicamp and believed the best way to serve his teammates would be to prioritize practice rather than celebrating Indiana's national title.
The decision to prioritize football not only earned him some points with teammates and the Raiders coaching staff, but it also allowed Mendoza to avoid willingly throwing himself into political discourse.
However, Trump said that Mendoza had personally called him to explain why he could not attend. President Trump also said that Mendoza is "a big fan of ours" and that he would not have mentioned the star quarterback if he wasn't.
"If he hadn't done that, believe me, I wouldn't even be talking about him. I don't. If he wasn't here for other reasons, like he didn't like Trump or he didn't want to come, I wouldn't even have mentioned him. I would do the whole thing. [speech] - I'll talk about how awesome it is [the team was]I won't even mention the quarterback's name.
President Donald Trump calls Fernando Mendoza to explain why he did not visit the White House
Mendoza probably would have preferred if that alleged call had not been disclosed, but he avoided public scrutiny by skipping a trip to the White House, and he had a legitimate excuse for doing so.
