MINUTES. LINDSEY ADAM, THANK YOU. REDS OPENING DAY STILL OVER THREE WEEKS AWAY, BUT THEY ARE ALREADY IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP GOES TO BAT FOR PETE ROSE, SAYING HE WILL ISSUE A COMPLETE PARDON FOR THE HIT KING. WLWT NEWS FIVE’S RICHARD CHILES HAS REACTION FROM FANS AND WHAT THIS COULD MEAN FOR CHARLIE HUSTLE. LIKE CHARLIE HUSTLE HIMSELF, THE WHITE HOUSE DOVE HEAD FIRST INTO THE 2025 BASEBALL SEASON. PRESIDENT TRUMP POSTED ON TRUTH SOCIAL, SAYING, OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, HE’LL BE SIGNING A COMPLETE PARDON OF PETE ROSE. AND SAYING ROSE SHOULD BE PLACED IN THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. FANS OUTSIDE GREAT AMERICAN BALLPARK SAY THE POSSIBILITY OF A PARDON IS A BIG WIN FOR THE PRESIDENT AND THE HIT KING. HE SHOULD BE FORGIVEN FOR IT. YOU KNOW, HE DESERVES TO BE IN THE HALL OF FAME. ROSE IS IMMORTALIZED HERE AT THE REDS HALL OF FAME. HIS NUMBER 14 EMBLAZONED IN THE CINCINNATI REDS HISTORY. PETE LOVES BASEBALL MORE THAN ANYBODY. LOVES BASEBALL. ROSE’S NAME AND LIKENESS HELPS DEFINE THE GAME IN THIS CITY. TOUGH, GRITTY. TENACIOUS. BUT HIS LIFETIME BAN FROM THE GAME BLOCKS HIM FROM COOPERSTOWN’S BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. EVEN AFTER HIS DEATH LAST SEPTEMBER. BUT THOSE WHO KNEW HIM BEST SAY THE RECOGNITION OF PRESIDENT TRUMP IS FITTING START TO THE SEASON, AND THE CAMPAIGN TO HONOR THE HOMETOWN LEGEND. I WAS THINKING THAT JD VANCE IS FROM MIDDLETOWN, OHIO. MARK AND I WERE FROM MIDDLETOWN, OHIO. PETE WAS AROUND MIDDLETOWN, OHIO, SO THAT’S MAYBE PART OF WHY EVERYBODY’S INTERESTED IN THIS. MAYBE JD TOLD THE PRESIDENT, CHRIS LINCOLN, AND THE REST OF THE STAFF AT SPORTS GALLERY HAVE FILLED THE STORE IN A BIG PART OF THEIR LIVES WITH SOME OF PETE ROSE’S BIGGEST MOMENTS. WITH EVERYTHING GOING ON IN THE NEWS, YOU KNOW THAT HAPPENED RECENTLY AND WORLD EVENTS AND THAT, YOU KNOW, THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT, YOU KNOW, HE WAS THINKING ABOUT. SO IT’S GREAT FOR PETE, YOU KNOW, TO GET HOPEFULLY GET IN THE HALL OF FAME. WITH LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE OPENING DAY, THE BASES ARE NOW LOADED AND THE COUNT IS FULL WITH THE ROSE’S PARDON AND REINSTATEMENT COMING TO THE PLATE. WOULD HE BE A TRUMP VOTER? YES. THAT’S ALL I’M GOING TO SAY ABOUT THAT. THE ANSWER IS YES. RICHARD CHILES WLWT NEWS FIVE. AND IT’S UNCLEAR IF OR WHEN THIS POSTHUMOUS PARDON WOULD BE
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A look back at prior interactions through the years between Pete Rose and Donald Trump
Updated: 7:29 PM EST Mar 2, 2025
Following the announcement of an impending posthumous pardon for Reds legend Pete Rose on Saturday, the relationship between Rose and President Trump in life is coming into renewed focus.On Saturday, Trump announced his intent to grant a full pardon to Rose, who was convicted of federal tax evasion charges in 1990 for not claiming approximately $354,000 in income he earned from sports betting, baseball memorabilia sales, and paid public appearances on his tax filings.It is not known what led Trump to grant the pardon, which previously did not appear to have been publicly discussed by the president. However, some that WLWT interviewed at Great American Ball Park on Saturday about the pardon speculated that it may have come at the urging of Vice President JD Vance, a Cincinnati resident who had very recently publicly called for Pete Rose to be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame.Earlier this year, on Jan. 18, just two days before he was set to be inaugurated as vice president, Vance responded in a post on X to then-President Joe Biden. The post came after Biden declared on X the Equal Rights Amendment to be the law of the land. The Equal Rights Amendment was a failed push in the 1970s to install a constitutional amendment explicitly guaranteeing equal rights to women within the country.”Hey Joe if we’re doing fake (expletive) on the way out can you declare Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame?” wrote Vance on X. “See you in two days!”Trump himself made the same call after Rose’s death last year in September, writing on X, “The GREAT Pete Rose just died. He was one of the most magnificent baseball players ever to play the game. He paid the price! Major League Baseball should have allowed him into the Hall of Fame many years ago. Do it now, before his funeral!”While not a whole lot is publicly known about the pair’s in-person interactions together, Trump also appeared to have a warm relationship with Rose in life as well. During Trump’s 2016 run for president in the primaries before he was the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, Rose repeated Trump’s “Make American Great Again” slogan back to him in a personalized autograph.In a post on Trump’s Twitter account in March 2016, Rose signed a baseball for Trump, writing, “Mr. Trump, please make America great again. Pete Rose”Rose later clarified through a spokesman that the signature was not meant as an official endorsement. Rose never endorsed any candidate for president in 2020 or 2024, either. In February 2020, Trump posted again on Twitter about Rose, writing, “Pete Rose played Major League Baseball for 24 seasons, from 1963-1986, and had more hits, 4,256, than any other player (by a wide margin). He gambled, but only on his own team winning, and paid a decades long price. GET PETE ROSE INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. It’s Time!”Before that, Trump had again echoed the call on social media in 2014.On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is considering removing the Cincinnati native from the league’s ineligible list more than 35 years after he was placed there. Trump never mentioned anything about pardoning Rose’s tax evasion convictions in any of his prior social media posts. However, regardless of what finally convinced Trump to issue the pardon, Rose appears to have intermittently been on Trump’s mind for over a decade now, with the president repeatedly labeling him as someone who was wronged by the MLB even before entering elected office.
Following the announcement of an impending posthumous pardon for Reds legend Pete Rose on Saturday, the relationship between Rose and President Trump in life is coming into renewed focus.
On Saturday, Trump announced his intent to grant a full pardon to Rose, who was convicted of federal tax evasion charges in 1990 for not claiming approximately $354,000 in income he earned from sports betting, baseball memorabilia sales, and paid public appearances on his tax filings.
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It is not known what led Trump to grant the pardon, which previously did not appear to have been publicly discussed by the president. However, some that WLWT interviewed at Great American Ball Park on Saturday about the pardon speculated that it may have come at the urging of Vice President JD Vance, a Cincinnati resident who had very recently publicly called for Pete Rose to be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame.
Earlier this year, on Jan. 18, just two days before he was set to be inaugurated as vice president, Vance responded in a post on X to then-President Joe Biden. The post came after Biden declared on X the Equal Rights Amendment to be the law of the land. The Equal Rights Amendment was a failed push in the 1970s to install a constitutional amendment explicitly guaranteeing equal rights to women within the country.
“Hey Joe if we’re doing fake (expletive) on the way out can you declare Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame?” wrote Vance on X. “See you in two days!”
Trump himself made the same call after Rose’s death last year in September, writing on X, “The GREAT Pete Rose just died. He was one of the most magnificent baseball players ever to play the game. He paid the price! Major League Baseball should have allowed him into the Hall of Fame many years ago. Do it now, before his funeral!”
While not a whole lot is publicly known about the pair’s in-person interactions together, Trump also appeared to have a warm relationship with Rose in life as well. During Trump’s 2016 run for president in the primaries before he was the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, Rose repeated Trump’s “Make American Great Again” slogan back to him in a personalized autograph.
In a post on Trump’s Twitter account in March 2016, Rose signed a baseball for Trump, writing, “Mr. Trump, please make America great again. Pete Rose”
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Rose later clarified through a spokesman that the signature was not meant as an official endorsement. Rose never endorsed any candidate for president in 2020 or 2024, either.
In February 2020, Trump posted again on Twitter about Rose, writing, “Pete Rose played Major League Baseball for 24 seasons, from 1963-1986, and had more hits, 4,256, than any other player (by a wide margin). He gambled, but only on his own team winning, and paid a decades long price. GET PETE ROSE INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. It’s Time!”
Before that, Trump had again echoed the call on social media in 2014.
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is considering removing the Cincinnati native from the league’s ineligible list more than 35 years after he was placed there.
Trump never mentioned anything about pardoning Rose’s tax evasion convictions in any of his prior social media posts. However, regardless of what finally convinced Trump to issue the pardon, Rose appears to have intermittently been on Trump’s mind for over a decade now, with the president repeatedly labeling him as someone who was wronged by the MLB even before entering elected office.
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