As the National Baseball Hall of Fame prepares to unveil its new inductees, United States President Donald Trump on Saturday renewed his plea for former star pitcher Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, whose reputation remains tarnished by doping accusations.
Trump’s social media post about Clemens comes on the eve of the announcement of the Contemporary Era of Baseball Players Committee picks. This committee reviews applications from retired players who are no longer eligible for election by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), which nominates recently retired players.
Clemens is among eight candidates vying for the committee. Trump, who earlier this year called for his induction into the Hall of Fame, on Saturday called the doping accusations against Clemens “false allegations.”
“The only reason he is not (in the Hall of Fame) is rumors and insinuations that have not been proven,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Clemens was acquitted in 2012 of federal charges that he lied to Congress during a 2008 investigation when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
The Hall of Fame and Clemens did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The White House said it had nothing to add beyond Trump’s post. The Major League Baseball commissioner’s office said it does not comment on Hall of Fame candidates.
Among the other players examined by the committee of the contemporary era is Barry Bonds, another former baseball star accused of using performance-enhancing substances. Like Clemens, Bonds was ultimately cleared of any criminal charges related to a steroids investigation.
Clemens and Bonds were cited in the 2007 Mitchell Report, which focused on illegal substance use in baseball. Clemens has always maintained that he did not use doping products. Bonds, for his part, says he has never knowingly taken any banned substances.
In 2022, in his final year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot, Clemens received only 65.2% of the vote, short of the required threshold of 75%.
The former star pitcher is not the first player Donald Trump has supported for induction despite controversy. Earlier this year, Trump also called for the induction of historic hitting leader Pete Rose, whose ban for sports betting kept him out of the hall of fame for decades.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred lifted the ban on Rose after a meeting with Trump.
