President Donald Trump praised soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo during a White House dinner to welcome the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump made note of his youngest son Barron’s affection for the Portuguese star, who was making his first known appearance in the U.S. since rape allegations were brought against him by an American teacher, Kathryn Mayorga, in 2017.
The 19-year-old Barron is an avid soccer enthusiast and a “big fan” of Ronaldo.
“Barron got to meet him. And I think he respects his father a little bit more, now, just the fact that I introduced you,” Trump said Tuesday.
Prince Mohammed was visiting the White House for the first time since a period of diplomatic isolation began in 2018 after the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in a consulate office in Istanbul.
U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Prince Mohammed likely directed the operation. He has denied involvement in the killing.
Trump scolded a reporter early in the day and defended the Crown Prince when Khashoggi’s murder was brought up in a question in the Oval Office, saying bin Salman “knew nothing about it.”
Ronaldo, who attended the gala with fiancée Georgina Rodriguez, plays for the Saudi team Al-Nassr, where he signed a contract reportedly worth over $200 million per year in 2022. He has not played in the U.S. since 2014.
In 2017, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that Ronaldo had paid $375,000 years earlier in hush money to a woman who accused him of raping her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
Ronaldo’s lawyers maintained that the sex was consensual, and no criminal charges were ever filed.
