President Donald Trump 'not happy' Fernando Mendoza skipped White House visit

President Donald Trump was not happy that Fernando Mendoza skipped Indiana’s visit to the White House to honor the team’s undefeated national championship season. Well, he said it in jest of course, we think.

Mendoza explained he would not join his Indiana brethren in Washington D.C. due to OTAs with the Las Vegas Raiders. Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and ended up being the No. 1 overall pick last month. 

President Trump didn’t like that, sort of. He even said Mendoza called him and the two were really cordial about the QB not being able to attend.

“The reason he’s not here — he was so nice, he called because he has actually . . . he’s a big fan of ours,” President Trump said. “You wouldn’t believe it, because he didn’t show up. I’m not happy, but that’s okay. The reason he didn’t, because he’s at spring training, right . . .

“And he’s at spring training, like his first day or something. I said, ‘You better go there.’ But he became Indiana’s first — otherwise, if he didn’t do that, believe me, I wouldn’t have even talked about him. I would have not. If he was not here for other reasons, like he didn’t like Trump or he didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t have even mentioned him. I’d go through the whole [speech] — I’d talk about how great [the team was], I wouldn’t even mention the quarterback’s name.”

So if you got all that, President Trump seemed glad Mendoza kept his head down and went to work? He respected it seemed.

“I believe May 11th is the first day of OTA’s, if I’m not mistaken,” Mendoza said. “If it is on the first day of OTA’s, I’m on the bottom of the totem pole here. I’ve got to prove myself. I can’t miss practice. I don’t have the calendar, but as a rookie, I don’t think that’s a good look (to skip and go to the White House. I’ve got to try and best serve my teammates, and I don’t think that would be accomplishing that goal.”

While Mendoza didn’t show up, a good amount of Hoosiers did, including head coach Curt Cignetti. In fact, Cignetti might’ve read “The Art of the Deal” when he tried to exchange the national championship trophy for NIL funds.

“We’ll let you keep the trophy for an NIL contribution,” Cignetti said. The trophy sat a few feet away from the lectern.

The crowd present for the gathering laughed. President Trump also chuckled and then said he’d be up for that kind of quid pro quo.

“I’ll do that for NIL,” President Trump said. “Boy oh boy did the courts screw us up, huh? That’s all right. It’s whatever happened it seems to be working for you. You’re going to make it very successful. You’re going to create something very, very successful I have no doubt.”