The Los Angeles Dodgers are headed back to the White House on July 23, when President Trump will host them to mark their 2025 World Series title. The visit will come during an East Coast road trip after next week’s All-Star break, and it will be the third time the White House has welcomed the team this decade.
That timing is why the name Edgardo Henriquez is suddenly drawing attention. Fans looking for the next Dodgers milestone are landing on a familiar question: why go back now, and why to this White House, after a season in which the team’s public relationship with Trump has already been tested?
Last spring, when the Dodgers made their first White House visit, Trump told the team, “That is a very good-looking group of people,” while some Dodgers officials said the trip was about tradition, not politics. The club said it was observing a once-revered sports custom and showing respect for the country’s highest office, not necessarily the man in it. Taylor Rogers later framed the invitation as a celebration, saying Trump was excited to welcome the Dodgers back to mark their World Series championship.
But the visit sits alongside a harder reality in Los Angeles. Two months after that first White House stop, midsummer ICE raids hit the city, and the team moved more carefully after that, only later announcing and fulfilling a $1.1-million donation to community organizations meant to support families affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Los Angeles Times has described the Dodgers as having the largest immigrant fan base in sports, which is part of why the team’s silence and its timing drew so much scrutiny.
That is the conflict the Dodgers are stepping into again on July 23. The White House visit is no longer just a ceremonial date on the calendar; it is a public choice to keep faith with a long sports ritual that dates to President Andrew Johnson in 1865, even as some other teams have stayed away and even as many of the Dodgers’ own supporters are still living with the fallout from the raids.
So the answer to why they are going is plain enough: they are choosing tradition, and the pull of a championship visit, over the cost of another round of criticism. What remains to watch is whether the Dodgers use the moment to say anything more than thank you when they walk through the door.
