Rob Manfred admits to being influenced by President Donald Trump in key decision

The Donald apparently made a very convincing argument to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.

Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Manfred spoke out about his recent decision to reinstate the late Pete Rose from baseball’s permanently ineligible list. Several other deceased former players were also reinstated along with Rose, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.

Manfred acknowledged to reporters that President Donald Trump served as a key influence in the decision to reinstate Rose.

“The President was one of a number of voices that was supportive of the idea that this was the right decision,” Manfred said, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. “Obviously, I have respect for the office and the advice that he gave. I paid attention to [it]. But I had a lot of other people that were weighing in on the topic as well.”

Back in March, Trump issued a strongly worded post about MLB’s ban of Rose to his social media platform Truth Social. Trump called on baseball to “get off its fat, lazy a–” and reinstate Rose, who died in September 2024 at the age of 83. You can read Trump’s full post on the matter here.

Then just two months later in May, Manfred took Trump up on the advice and formally removed Rose from baseball’s permanently ineligible list. The move by Manfred made Rose officially eligible for the selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame but still sparked backlash due of the fact that it was not done until Rose had died.

Rose, who is MLB’s all-time hits king, was banned from baseball for life in 1989 by then-MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti for placing bets on the Cincinnati Reds team that he was managing at the time. Interestingly enough, Rose (just before his death) perfectly nailed his prediction about how Major League Baseball would handle his situation.