Saquon Barkley is defending his decision to hang with Donald Trump.
The Philadelphia Eagles running back took to X on Monday morning after images and video showing him hanging out Trump circulated over the weekend.
“Lol some people are really upset cause I played golfed and flew to the White House with the PRESIDENT. Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand," Barkley tweeted. “Just golfed with Obama not too long ago…and look forward to finishing my round with Trump ! Now ya get out my mentions with all this politics and have amazing day.”
Over the weekend, Barkley was seen with Trump ahead of the Eagles visit to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win. Trump is expected to welcome the team to the White House on Monday.
On Sunday, Barkley and Trump were photographed disembarking Marine One in New Jersey. According to CNN, the president later called the star NFL player a “nice guy." He added, “I wanted to race him, but I decided not to do it.”
Later, photos emerged online showed the pair at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. There were several MAGA hats on the table in front of them.
The pair's golfing trip comes days after Jalen Hurts avoided answering a question about the White House visit. Last Thursday, on the red carpet for the 2025 TIME 100 gala in New York City, a reporter asked him if he was attending the White House celebration, to which Hurts responded with an “Um” as he looked around.
Back in 2018, the Eagles were invited to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory against the New England Patriots. However, the team decided against doing so after winning their first Vince Lombardi trophy. Trump was in office at the time, and he subsequently disinvited them, falsely claiming that players on the team were involved in national anthem protests.
Earlier this month, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie described the White House celebration as a “time-honored tradition,” but that it was “optional.”
“To be celebrated at the White House is a good thing,” Lurie said, per CNN. “There were special circumstances [in 2018] that were very different, and so this was kind of an obvious choice and look forward to it.
“When you grow up and you hear about: ‘Oh, the championship team got to go to the White House,’ that’s what this is. And so we didn’t have that opportunity and now we do. I think we’re all looking forward to it.”