‘The mark of true champions’: Trump honors Gators at White House for 2025 title

President Donald Trump welcomed the Florida Gators men’s basketball program to The White House on Wednesday to celebrate its 2025 national championship. Trump held a joint press conference with UF coach Todd Golden before inviting him and his team to the Oval Office.

Trump’s speech recognized Golden and multiple players for their contributions during Florida’s season. The two titles in the NCAA Tournament and SEC Tournament earned Golden a new six-year, $40.5 million deal worth $6.75M annually, making him the fourth-highest paid coach in college basketball.

“Congratulations to a really great young head coach, Todd Golden, on the entire job he did, the season, the inspiration that he gave these players. He’s unbelievable as a coach. I heard a lot of great things about him. Oh, would I like to be his agent,” Trump said.

Trump recalled Florida’s 27-4 regular season, including two wins over No. 1 teams and the comeback at South Carolina in a game where the Gators trailed 52-38. He congratulated Will Richard for his game-winning layup in the 70-69 victory.

“That’s a pretty good coach,” Trump said of UF’s rally against the Gamecocks. “They’re not too happy about it, are they?”

Trump then discussed the Gators beating Tennessee in the SEC Tournament Final. Florida saw a 13-point lead trimmed to five but held on for the 86-77 win.

“That’s called sometimes choke time,” Trump quipped. “That’s never good when you take that big lead and you’re thinking about your victory speech and you forget to play basketball. And then all of a sudden you say, ‘Oh man, we could lose this sucker, huh?’ That’s never good, but you handled it. The pressure was on, you handled it.”

Trump credited Walter Clayton Jr. for seizing control of the game with eight straight points to earn SEC Tournament MVP. He also had a funny exchange with Golden about Clayton.

“I’ll tell you, I hear he’s really good. He’s really rich, too,” Trump said. “Not yet. Is he coming back, coach?”

“No,” Golden responded, “he’ll be playing the NBA next year.”

“Well, then he’s rich,” Trump said. “Gonna be a very early draft choice, I think. If they’re smart.”

Trump mentioned Florida’s comeback wins over UConn and Texas Tech, complementing Thomas Haugh for back-to-back 3-pointers against the Red Raiders — and his “good hair” — and the Gators for their ability to pull out both contests.

“Some of these games are close,” Trump said to Golden. “Do you know what they say about those close wins? That means they have a good coach.”

“I don’t know about that,” Golden said with a laugh.

Trump then recapped Florida’s Final Four victory over Auburn and was impressed with Clayton becoming the first player since Lary Bird in 1979 to score 30 points or more in both the Elite Eight and the Final Four.

“That is something,” Trump said.

Trump called Florida’s national title win over Houston one of the most hard-fought title games in college basketball history. For the fourth time in the NCAA Tournament, UF rallied from a deficit with a 14-3 run but still trailed by one with less than 60 seconds left.

“Did you think you’re going to win?” Trump asked Golden.

“I did,” Golden replied.

“That’s what he gets paid for,” Trump said.

Trump also acknowledged Alijan Martin and Denzel Aberdeen for their free throws in the final minute to seal the game. Martin told him he wasn’t nervous at the foul line.

“If you didn’t sink him, you wouldn’t be up here right now,” Trump quipped. “I saw that game. It was a crazy game. … Great coaching. Lesser teams would have crumbled. That was a hell of a game.

“Under that pressure, very few teams could have withstood that. That was an amazing moment, actually. Time after time, you refused to let up … and that’s the mark of true champions, all of you.”

Before Golden took the podium, Trump said the first question he asked him Wednesday was how the Gators will do next year and where they’ll be ranked entering the season.

“I think we’ll be top five,” said Golden, who landed top-10 overall transfer Boogie Fland on Tuesday.

Golden thanked Trump for the invitation to The White House and presented him with an autographed team basketball and a UF jersey with Trump and No. 47 on the back.

Golden said the goal is to be back in Washington, D.C., this time next year.

“Mr. President, I like to think of our program similarly to how you think of the United States. We’re a meritocracy. We work really, really hard no matter what you look like, where you come from. If you put the team first and win, we’re going to play you. And we have a program full of that. Guys that have great attitudes, great work ethics and most importantly, want to be at the University of Florida,” Golden said.

“We had guys that were willing to play together, sacrifice individual stats and records for the greater good of the group, and it led us to a 36-4 record and a trip to the White House. … I’m incredibly proud of my players and our staff in the work that we’ve done over the last year. And our goal is to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to be here again next year, but we’ve got a lot of work to do in the meantime.”

"We're delighted to welcome the 2025 NCAA Basketball Champions, the @UF @GatorsMBK, who brought home the third national title in program history and made Florida the only Division One program ever to win three national titles in both basketball and football." –President Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/eX1swZcTi1

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 22, 2025