Trump has not extended White House invitation to 2025 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, team says
President Donald J. Trump has yet to host a WNBA or NBA championship team during his terms, and this will be the first time the Aces have not made a White House visit after winning a title. USA Today was first to report the news.
The Athletic reached out to the White House for comment on whether the Trump administration will extend a delayed invite to the Aces, and will update this story if it responds. The Athletic also asked whether the New York Knicks or San Antonio Spurs would be invited after the NBA Finals. The Aces declined to comment when asked whether they’d accept an invitation if one were extended.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the Aces at the White House almost a year after they beat the Connecticut Sun in the 2022 WNBA Finals; President Joe Biden was on vacation. Biden had hosted the Aces in May 2024 to celebrate their 2023 WNBA championship.
Multiple athletes throughout the years have declined to attend honorary visits to the White House, but the tradition has become more contentious under Trump. He has famously revoked invitations or publicly told players, including Stephen Curry, they aren’t invited. Other teams have stated they would not accept an invitation.
In 2025, the New York Liberty did not receive an invitation from the Trump administration, according to a report from the New York Post. Team ownership instead arranged a dinner with former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
During Trump’s first term, three WNBA champions — the Minnesota Lynx (2017), Seattle Storm (2018, 2020) and Washington Mystics (2019) — did not visit the White House. The Lynx were not invited; there was never any public acknowledgement of an invite to the Storm; and the Mystics were not invited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2000, a few years after the league launched, the Houston Comets were the first WNBA champions to be honored at the White House, accepting an invitation from President Bill Clinton. Other WNBA champs visited the White House during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Obama.
The 2020 Storm visited Biden in August during his first year in office, becoming the first WNBA team to visit the White House since 2016. The Chicago Sky never visited Biden’s White House after winning their first WNBA championship in 2021; the team didn’t specify at the time whether an invitation was extended.
In NCAA women’s basketball, only Baylor’s 2019 championship team has visited the Trump White House; other teams were not invited or declined invitations, citing scheduling conflicts.
Visiting the White House and meeting the president has been a longstanding tradition for professional and college championship teams. The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional team to visit the White House in 1869.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Las Vegas Aces, WNBA
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