Trump Hosts Indiana Hoosiers to Celebrate College Football Championship
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump welcomed the Indiana University Hoosiers football team to the White House on Monday to celebrate their January College Football Playoff championship.
Head coach Curt Cignetti and dozens of players joined Trump for the South Lawn celebration. About 15 players on the 2026 team, including star quarterback Fernando Mendoza, were absent because they were attending training camp after being drafted by National Football League (NFL) teams, Cignetti noted.
Trump said Mendoza called him.
“He was so nice. He called…Actually, JD, he’s a big fan of ours,” Trump told Vice President JD Vance, seated in the front row. “You wouldn’t believe it because he didn’t show up. I’m not happy, but that’s OK. The reason he isn’t is because he’s in spring training.”
“If he wasn’t here for other reasons, like he didn’t like Trump, or he didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t even mention him…I wouldn’t even mention the quarterback’s name, but he’s a great guy, actually, and he’s actually a big fan of what we’re doing for our country,” Trump added.
Mendoza, the 2026 Heisman Trophy winner whom the Las Vegas Raiders selected with the first pick in April’s NFL Draft, said Earlier this month, he was unlikely to travel to the White House, with training beginning as he works to integrate into his new team.
“It was a year that will forever be in the hearts of Indiana football fans. It was an exciting year for football, but maybe you are the bigger story,” he told Cignetti, whom he later called “the coach of the last decade.”
The president noted that 2026 marked the first-ever undefeated season and national championship in program history, drawing cheers from those watching from the South Lawn.
On behalf of the program, Cignetti and Charlie Becker presented Trump with a jersey bearing the number 47, a Hoosiers helmet and a football signed by Cignetti and the team. The president also received the players in the Oval Office.
