Trump Says He Would Pardon Pete Rose for 1990 Tax Charges, Then Jokes About Dana White as Press Secretary

President Donald Trump said Monday, Nov. 9, that he would pardon Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, who died in 2024. He said it at a hastily arranged White House briefing, with UFC CEO Dana White standing next to him.

The Rose exchange was one of the first questions White took. It started as a sideshow to a joke that began over the weekend.

The press secretary gag

On Saturday, Trump posted on social media that he wanted "the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior" as his next chief spokesman. White was at a boxing match in London when it landed. "He called me and told me that he had done this," White said Monday. "The last 24 hours of my life has been insane."

Neither the White House nor UFC would say over the weekend whether the offer was serious. On Sunday night, Trump said, "I was kidding, but I think Dana likes the idea, and he is a very capable guy."

White flew to Washington anyway. He took the podium and said, "I have zero political aspirations." Late in the session, Trump asked him whether he wanted to be press secretary or "just want to stay with this ridiculous UFC?" White answered, "I do not want to be in politics, no."

Trump said he had been having a "very bad press day" and figured the joke might be good for a laugh. The event came together so quickly that staff did not have time to put the presidential seal on the lectern.

What Trump said about Rose

A reporter asked White for advice on a possible posthumous pardon. "I don't advise the president on anything ever," White said. "But yeah, I think it's fair to pardon Pete Rose."

Trump jumped in. "By the way, why does he need a pardon? He was not really convicted of a criminal –" The reporter cut in: "It was tax charges, sir."

The reporter was right. Rose pleaded guilty in April 1990 to two federal tax charges, admitting he underreported more than $300,000 in income. Trump's first reaction showed he was not working from the actual record.

He recovered quickly. "I'd give Pete Rose a pardon," Trump said. "I think Pete Rose was very mistreated." He cited Rose's "4,200-and-some-odd hits," and the official total is 4,256.

Trump also drew a line on the gambling. "He was gambling on his own team, Dana. He wasn't gambling against [his team] – that's different." He conceded the point that matters to MLB: "He shouldn't have done it, but he went through 40 years of hell."

He said he had spoken to the commissioner about getting Rose into the Hall of Fame. "He agreed to do it, and then he waited though, and Pete Rose died," Trump said.

Where the Rose case actually stands

This is not a new promise. In March 2025, Trump said on Truth Social that he would be "signing a complete pardon" of Rose. On Monday he was still speaking in the conditional, "I would give Pete Rose a pardon," and no signed pardon has been announced.

MLB banned Rose for life in 1989 over gambling. Commissioner Rob Manfred removed him and several other players from the permanently ineligible list posthumously in May 2025. That made them eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.

The Hall has not elected him. Writers never got a chance to vote on Rose during his lifetime, because the Hall followed the league's ban.

Trump said again in May that Rose's absence from Cooperstown was a "disservice" and that baseball "did a great disservice by not respecting his achievements on the field."

The rest of the briefing

Trump took about half an hour of questions on the midterms and the Iran war before the White segment wound down. Republicans took sweeping losses in last week's elections.

On Sunday night, Trump was asked about Democratic vows to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once Democrats take their majorities in January. Trump called both men "very fine people" and told Democrats to "get back to the country."

He also said the U.S. has lost 18 soldiers across the Venezuela operation and the Iran war. On Iran, he said, "It's just a question of closing it out now or later." Those are Trump's own claims and characterizations of the conflicts.

What comes next

A pardon would not touch the Hall of Fame question. That decision sits with the Hall and its voters, and Rose has been eligible since May 2025 without being elected.

Trump has now floated the pardon twice, in March 2025 and again Monday, and neither time has a signed document been announced. Whether he follows through on a posthumous pardon is the open question.