Saquon Barkley Addresses Criticism Over His White House Visit

The running back played golf with President Donald Trump Sunday.

President Donald Trump and Saquon Barkley talk Sunday. / MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

On Sunday, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley golfed with President Donald Trump. A day later, he appears set to serve as a face of the Eagles' delegation to the White House.

Barkley received substantial criticism for golfing with Trump, which he addressed in a Monday morning social media.

"lol some people are really upset cause I played golfed and flew to the White House with the PRESIDENT. Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand. Just golfed with Obama not too long ago... and look forward to finishing my round with Trump!" Barkley said. "Now ya get out my mentions with all this politics and have amazing day."

lol some people are really upset cause I played golfed and flew to the White House with the PRESIDENT. Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand. Just golfed with Obama not too long ago…and look forward to finishing my round with Trump ! Now ya get out my…

— Saquon Barkley (@saquon) April 28, 2025

This is a shift for Barkley, though perhaps not a pronounced one.

“If a fan wants to not be a fan of me because I retweet a thing for Colin Kaepernick, I don’t care,” he told Pat Leonard of The New York Daily News in 2019, expressing support for the quarterback. "But I respect that people have their own opinions. Everyone is entitled to that. I just would hope that people respect I have a right to my own opinion, as well."

He then went out of his way then to explain that a different retweet "wasn’t so much a retweet going at Trump, I guess you could say."

Per NBC's Yamiche Alcindor, quarterback Jalen Hurts will not visit the White House due to what the administration termed "scheduling conflicts."

A White House official confirms to me that @Eagles quarterback @JalenHurts will not be visiting the White House when the Super Bowl champions come later this afternoon. The White House says Hurts and other players who can’t attend had “scheduling conflicts.”

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 28, 2025

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