UPDATE: According to the latest reports in the Portuguese press, Cristiano Ronaldo is due to attend a dinner at the White House at 00.15am (Portuguese time) alongside Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman
Portugal’s international football star Cristiano Ronaldo is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC this Tuesday.
CR7 is set to meet with Trump at any second as an unofficial member of the Saudi Arabian delegation which is visiting the White House this afternoon, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
News of the encounter surfaced only weeks after Ronaldo’s interview with Piers Morgan, in which the Al Nassr forward expressed a strong desire to meet Trump.
“If the world is at peace, that’s our goal,” Ronaldo said. “He’s one of the people who can change or help change the world. And that’s my main objective: to meet Trump and talk about world peace”.
“Here, in the United States – wherever it happens, I’d like to meet him. I know he’s been to Saudi Arabia. I hope to sit down with him someday because he’s one of those people I really like. I think he can make things happen, and I respect people like that.”
“I hope the world finds a path to peace soon,” Ronaldo added. “That’s what I’m looking for. And someday, if I get the chance to sit down with him, I’ll tell him what we have in common. But I’ll keep it to myself until that moment.”
The meeting also comes months after European Council President António Costa gifted Trump a Portugal football jersey signed by Ronaldo on the sidelines of the G7 Summit. The No. 7 shirt carried a handwritten message from the player: “To President Donald J. Trump. Playing for peace.”
For Ronaldo, the trip marks his first return to the US in nearly a decade. The footballer has not visited the country since 2016, following a long absence that began after Kathryn Mayorga accused him in 2017 of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. In 2023, U.S. courts dismissed Mayorga’s appeal, in which she sought US$25 million (around €23.6 million) in damages from the Portugal captain.
His reappearance in the US comes at a symbolic moment. Next year’s FIFA World Cup will be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and Portugal secured qualification on Sunday with a commanding 9–1 victory over Armenia at Estádio do Dragão.
Before the World Cup, Portugal is also expected to play a friendly against the United States in March at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, according to The Athletic.
The crown prince’s visit is also notable: it marks his first trip to the United States since the CIA concluded that he approved the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul – an allegation denied by bin Salman and Saudi Arabia.
