President Donald Trump claimed last week that he was invited to throw out the opening pitch at a Yankees baseball game, which was reportedly news to the Yankees.
Calling Yankees team president Randy Levine “a great friend,” Trump bragged during a White House briefing last Thursday that Levine had “asked me to throw out the first pitch” at Yankee Stadium on August 15 in the match against the Washington Nationals. The President’s announcement happened to came right before Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent health expert on the White House’s COVID-19 task force, threw out the first pitch at a Yankees game that day.
But according to the New York Times, both the White House and Yankees officials had no idea about any supposed invitation to the game. Though Levine had offered to let Trump throw out the first pitch at some point, the President had reportedly not been invited to do so on that particular date.
Trump’s abrupt announcement was reportedly prompted by his irritation that Fauci, who has clashed with the President’s rosy framing of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S., had been invited to throw out the opening pitch.
The President walked back his announcement on Sunday, tweeting that plans to throw the first pitch were cancelled due to his “strong focus” on COVID-19.
