Donald Trump Backs Pete Rose's Baseball Hall of Fame Bid: 'It's Time!'

Former Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose, who received a lifetime ban for gambling on baseball, has reached out to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in an effort to be removed from the ineligible list. President Donald Trump is a fan of Rose being reinstated. He tweeted out his support on Saturday afternoon, writing that it's time for the former player and manager to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

"Pete Rose played Major League Baseball for 24 seasons, from 1963-1986, and had more hits, 4,256, than any other player (by a wide margin)," Trump wrote on Twitter. "He gambled, but only on his own team winning, and paid a decades long price. GET PETE ROSE INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. It's Time!"

Rose was originally banned after a long investigation by John Dowd, the special counsel to MLB. It was revealed in the Dowd report that the Reds manager had been gambling on baseball games, including those involving his own team. Then-commissioner Bartlett Giamatti indefinitely suspended Rose in 1989.

Following more than three decades on Major League Baseball's ineligible list, Rose is attempting to get enshrined in the Hall of Fame. He recently revealed in a 20-page petition to MLB that the sign-stealing scandal by the Houston Astros, as well as the use of performance-enhancing substances, have not resulted in severe punishments.

"There cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else," Rose's petition says. "No objective standard or categorization of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those that have incurred substantially less severe penalties from Major League Baseball."

Rose's lawyers highlighted the lack of punishments handed to the actual players on the Astros that had been involved in the sign-stealing scandal. Manfred suspended Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow for one year and fined the team $5 million. Both figures were later fired by the Astros. However, Manfred did not punish the players.

The 78-year-old Rose has requested a meeting with Manfred to lay out his argument, which includes the varying punishments for steroids and other transgressions. His hope is that he will be made eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.

It's unclear if Rose will be reinstated or if he will receive a meeting with Manfred, but President Trump would like to see something happen. He believes that the former Reds manager has served his time, and he should be honored for the records that he set as a player.

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