Nationals Will Visit White House Monday to Celebrate World Series Win

The Nationals will visit the White House on Monday afternoon to celebrate their World Series victory with President Donald Trump, the White House announced Friday.

Championship-winning teams typically make the traditional White House visit during the season, when their schedules bring them to the D.C. area. The Nationals are making their visit so soon after winning the title because many of the players will already be in town for Saturday’s championship parade, according to the Washington Post.

The Nationals clinched their first World Series in franchise history with a Game 7 victory over the Astros in Houston on Wednesday.

Trump attended Game 5 of the series and was booed heavily by the crowd at Nationals Park when shown on the video screen.

Visits to the White House have become controversial under the Trump administration. Carlos Beltran, who had been critical of Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria in his native Puerto Rico, refused to visit with the Astros after Houston won the 2017 World Series. Multiple Red Sox players—many of them black and Latino—skipped the trip in May when Trump feted the Boston team for winning last year’s title. Manager Alex Cora, who like Beltran took issue with the hurricane response, also did not attend.

Nationals closer Sean Doolittle told the Washington Post he will not be in attendance when the team visits the White House.

"There's a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country," he said.

"At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can't do it. I just can't do it."