Rhiannon Ingle
United States President Donald Trump invited Lionel Messi and the rest of the Inter Miami football team to the White House on Thursday (5 March) to celebrate the club’s 2025 Major League Soccer Cup title.
The visit was meant to spotlight the sport and the team’s success, but instead, the 79-year-old Republican veered into a long political speech.
Opening the speech, as the players watched from the stage behind him, Trump began: "We like champions. We like winners."
He then quickly shifted his focus towards events in the Middle East.
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The US and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran over the weekend (28 February), which set off retaliatory strikes across the region.
"And before we begin, I think I will say a few words about what's going on with respect to our operation in the country of Iran," Trump said, before praising the campaign: "The United States military, together with the wonderful Israeli partners, continues to totally demolish the enemy far ahead of schedule, and at levels that people have never seen before, actually."
Continuing with a rundown of the operation, Trump declared: "We're destroying more of Iran's missiles and drone capability every single hour, knocking them out like nobody thought was possible.
"As soon as they set off a missile, within four minutes, the launcher gets hit. They don't know what's happening. But we have the greatest military anywhere in the world."
"Their navy is gone. Twenty-four ships in three days. That's a lot of ships," he went on while the footballers stood behind him. "Their anti-aircraft weapons are gone, so they have no Air Force. They have no air defence. All of their airplanes are gone. Their communications are gone. Missiles are gone. Launches are gone."
He closed by referring to conditions inside Iran, saying '60 percent and 64 percent, respectively' of Iran’s capabilities had been destroyed before concluding: "Other than that, they're doing quite well.
"I say, what's left? But they're tough."
After catching light of footage from the visit, people rushed to social media to share their thoughts, with one X user writing: "Donald Trump talking about a USA-Iran war with Messi in the background having absolutely no clue what’s going on."
Another penned: "This couldn’t be funnier.
"Trump invited the Inter Miami CF soccer team to the White House, with players like Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and others.
"And there he is giving an ultimatum to the Iranian military to lay down their weapons, with Messi and Suárez standing in the background."
And a final X user echoed: "Was supposed to be a celebration for Inter Miami CF… instead it turned into a speech about Iran. One of the strangest White House sports ceremonies in years."