Mookie Betts is skipping the White House visit. His reason has nothing to do with politics.

Mookie Betts is not going to the White House. The Dodgers star made that clear this week, even as the rest of the team heads to Washington to celebrate their 2024 World Series win. But he wants everyone to know it’s not about Donald Trump. It’s about a newborn.

Betts and his wife Brianna just had a baby. And as any new parent can tell you, those first few weeks are brutal. Sleep is a rumor. Free time doesn’t exist. So when the Dodgers’ White House visit landed on a rare day off during the season, Betts did the math. He stayed home.

“I’m not trying to make this a whole big deal,” Betts told Jack White of The California Post. “We just had a baby. You don’t get many days off. They’re coming on the road trip. And just want to hang out with the fam. That’s really kind of it. But people are gonna make it a whole bunch of other stuff.”

Yeah. People already are.

His past White House visits tell a complicated story

Betts has a tangled history with these trips. He skipped the White House visit with the Red Sox in 2019 after they won the World Series, a decision he later said he regretted. But he went in 2021 when Joe Biden was president. He also went last year with Trump, even though he was non-committal at first and made it sound like he might not show.

Back then, Betts framed it differently. “This is not about me. This is not about politics,” he said in 2024. “This is about the Dodgers. It’s about my loyalty to these boys, this clubhouse. And that’s all it is for me.”

So the flip-flop is going to get noticed. And Betts knows it.

He’s bracing for the backlash either way

Betts is smart enough to know he can’t win here. If he goes, people call him a sellout. If he skips, people call him disrespectful. He said as much, almost shrugging about it.

“If I do go, people are gonna hate me. If I don’t, people are gonna hate me,” Betts said. “So instead of trying to make everyone else happy, I’m gonna think about myself and my family.”

He also acknowledged that his profile makes him a target. “People are gonna try to drag me into politics, just because I am who I am. That’s just the cards I’m dealt. So it is what it is.”

For now, the Dodgers will make the trip without their star right fielder. Most fans will probably understand the baby excuse. Some won’t. That’s just how these things work.