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Trump Welcomes the 2025 Men's NCAA Basketball Champions, the Florida Gators, May 21, 2025

May 21, 2025 · The White House · 0:18:07

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump welcomed the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball champions, the University of Florida Gators, to the White House on May 21, 2025, in a ceremony carried on the White House channel and published that evening. “Today we’re delighted to welcome the 2025 NCAA basketball champions, the University of Florida Gators,” he said, honoring head coach Todd Golden — “Congratulations also to a really great young head coach, Todd Golden, on the entire job he did the season” — and interim university president Kent Fuchs, as the transcript renders the name. He called Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the stage — “there’s no bigger Florida fan than Secretary of State Marco Rubio” — along with Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, a large Florida House delegation, and former Gators quarterback Tim Tebow, whom he called “maybe the best college football player” ever, as he stated the judgment.

The President recounted the season as he presented it: the Gators “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,” opened 13–0 and finished the regular season 27–4, and survived South Carolina 70–69 on Will Richard’s layup with five seconds left after trailing 52–38, as he told the story.

Why it matters

This ceremony is the championship welcome for the Gators’ third title: the President’s season narrative, the Florida cabinet members and delegation on stage, and the program’s basketball-football distinction stated on the White House record.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Welcomes the 2025 Men’s NCAA Basketball Champions, The University of Florida Gators” (official upload, embedded above; event of May 21, 2025). White House one-minute excerpts of the same welcome (Yj6Vo6XsBNs, TvhewZAoxRY) are recorded as alternates in the index. All characterizations as stated by the President.