WASHINGTON — A day after President Donald Trump said he plans to attend Game 5 of the World Series, the Washington Nationals announced the ceremonial first pitch at that game will be thrown by chef José Andrés, a vocal critic of Trump.
Four years ago, Andrés withdrew from plans to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington following Trump’s controversial comments about Mexican immigrants during the presidential campaign.
Trump Old Post Office, which runs the hotel as the landlord under a lease with the General Services Administration, sued Andrés’ companies, Think Food Group and Topo Atrio, in July 2015 for breach of contract and claimed damages in excess of $10 million.
“The landlord allowed Mr. Trump to saddle us with the burden of his inflammatory statements, such that operating a high-end Spanish restaurant is no longer viable for us at this location,” Andrés’ companies said in a statement the following month.
Andrés’ companies filed a counterclaim, and the case in D.C. Superior Court was settled in 2017.
The Washington Nationals made the announcement Friday. Major League Baseball said the decision on first pitches is made jointly between the host team and MLB.
Washington leads Houston 2-0 in the best-of-seven series going into Game 3 on Friday, so a Game 5 on Sunday is not yet assured.
Trump would be the first sitting president to attend a World Series game since George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch at New York’s Yankee Stadium before Game 3 in 2001.
Other presidents who attended a World Series game were Woodrow Wilson (1915), Calvin Coolidge (1924), Herbert Hoover (1929, 1930, 1931), Franklin Roosevelt (1933, 1936), Dwight Eisenhower (1956), Jimmy Carter (1979) and Ronald Reagan (1983).
