Pete Rose endured forty years of hell, United States President Donald Trump said during an impromptu press briefing on Monday, renewing his push for the late baseball legend to enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The all-time Major League Baseball hits leader was treated very poorly and should have entered Cooperstown long ago, Trump told reporters alongside Ultimate Fighting Championship Chief Executive Officer Dana White, Lentedesportiva reported.
White distanced himself from political matters when asked if he would advise the president on a pardon for Rose, but he backed the sentiment.
“I never advise the president on anything, but yeah, I think it’s fair,” White told journalists.
Trump drew a distinction regarding the nature of the betting violations that led to Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball.
“He bet on his own team, Dana,” Trump said of Rose. “He didn’t bet against. That’s different.”
The legal scope of executive clemency is narrower than the president’s remarks suggested. Rose pleaded guilty in 1990 to two federal counts of filing false tax returns and served five months in prison.
A presidential pardon could theoretically address that conviction. The lifetime ban from baseball, however, stems from Rose’s own agreement with the commissioner’s office in 1989 after an investigation found he bet on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the club, and no White House order can lift it.
The president’s remarks follow action taken by Major League Baseball itself. Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Rose and 16 other deceased individuals from the permanently ineligible list on May 13, 2025.
“A person who is no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game,” Manfred wrote in his decision.
That administrative step, rather than any intervention from the executive branch, opened the door for Rose’s potential enshrinement. Trump first promised a pardon on Truth Social on March 1, 2025, pledging a complete pardon for Rose while noting he bet only on his team to win.
Manfred’s reinstatement followed about ten weeks later. No pardon has been signed in the 20 months since that social media post.
Rose died on September 30, 2024, at the age of 83, finishing his playing career with 4,256 hits, the most in MLB history.
His name is scheduled to be considered by the 16-member Classic Baseball Era Committee during its next meeting in December 2027, with an induction into Cooperstown possible in the summer of 2028 if he is elected.
