Trump Blasts Baseball Over Roger Clemens Hall of Fame Snub: ‘No Wonder Baseball Is in Trouble!’
President Donald Trump is renewing his push to get legendary pitcher Roger Clemens into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, blasting the voters who have kept the seven-time Cy Young Award winner out of Cooperstown despite one of the most accomplished careers in baseball history.
Trump weighed in Wednesday by highlighting Clemens’ remarkable career statistics, including 354 victories, 4,672 strikeouts and a record seven Cy Young Awards. He argued that Clemens clearly belongs among baseball’s greatest pitchers and suggested personal agendas have prevented him from receiving the recognition he deserves.
Clemens spent 24 seasons in the major leagues, starring for the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros. He was an 11-time All-Star, won two World Series championships with the Yankees and remains third on baseball’s all-time strikeout list.
Despite those accomplishments, Clemens has remained outside Cooperstown because of allegations connecting him to performance-enhancing drugs during baseball’s steroid era. Clemens has consistently denied using steroids, and Trump emphasized that the former pitcher was never convicted of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs or admitted doing so.
The controversy followed Clemens into federal court after he was accused of lying to Congress about performance-enhancing drug use. In 2012, a jury acquitted him on all six counts he faced, including charges of perjury and making false statements.
Clemens nevertheless failed to receive the 75% support required for induction during his 10 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. In his final appearance in 2022, he received 65.2% of the vote, ending his eligibility through the traditional writers’ ballot.
Trump argued that the continued exclusion makes little sense when Clemens’ accomplishments are compared with virtually any pitcher in baseball history. He described the people responsible for keeping Clemens out as “jealous” individuals with far less talent than the former Yankees and Red Sox ace.
The president also brought up Pete Rose, another baseball legend whose Hall of Fame status became the subject of repeated criticism from Trump. Rose spent decades on Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list because he bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds.
Trump claimed MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred previously told him Rose would be reinstated but waited until after the all-time hits leader died in 2024. MLB ultimately removed Rose and other deceased players from its permanently ineligible list in 2025, opening the door for Rose to eventually receive Hall of Fame consideration.
The president has repeatedly argued that baseball waited far too long to reconsider Rose’s status and does not want to see the same thing happen with Clemens. Trump previously warned that Clemens should receive recognition while he is alive rather than being honored decades later.
Clemens has publicly thanked Trump for supporting his Hall of Fame candidacy. The two have also played golf together, and Clemens previously said he appreciated the president standing behind him amid the years of controversy surrounding his baseball legacy.
Trump’s criticism comes as Major League Baseball faces other challenges, including uncertainty surrounding labor negotiations between owners and the players’ union. Commissioner Manfred has previously acknowledged that Trump follows sports closely and has shown interest in issues affecting professional baseball.
Clemens can no longer be elected through the traditional writers’ ballot, meaning any future path into Cooperstown would have to come through one of the Hall of Fame’s era committees. His accomplishments make him one of the most decorated eligible players still outside the Hall, but the steroid allegations continue to overshadow his candidacy.
Trump believes the debate should have ended long ago. Pointing to Clemens’ championships, strikeouts, victories and unmatched collection of Cy Young Awards, the president questioned why one of baseball’s greatest pitchers remains excluded before delivering his broader verdict on the sport: “No wonder Baseball is in trouble!”