Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests at a lavish White House dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump for the visiting Saudi crown prince on Tuesday.
Ronaldo plays for Saudi club Al Nassr, one of a number of aging players who have been attracted to the desert kingdom’s heavy spending on stars despite its rights record.
The 40-year-old, whose contract with the Saudi club ends this summer, took his place near the head of Trump’s table a few seconds before the president and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman entered.
“You know, my son is a big fan of Ronaldo,” Trump said in his pre-dinner speech, adding that his soccer-mad son Barron, 19, got to meet the legendary player.
“I think he respects his father a little bit more now, just the fact that I introduced you.”
Ronaldo was not the only soccer-related dinner guest, as FIFA chief Gianni Infantino made yet another appearance at the White House ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting.
Ronaldo says next year’s World Cup — for which Portugal booked their place on Sunday — will “definitely” be his last.
Also at the black-tie dinner was Space X and Tesla tycoon Musk, in a sign that the rift between the president and the world’s richest man has healed after their fiery public divorce.
South African-born Musk spent five months as head of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and accompanied Trump on a trip to Saudi Arabia in May.
But the relationship collapsed in July after Musk criticized Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill and then said that the president was in investigatory files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Trump responded by threatening Musk with deportation.
Musk, wearing a tuxedo, was seen chatting to fellow guests at a candlelit table — although a different one from Trump’s.
During the dinner Trump also praised the Saudi prince as a “man of leadership,” having earlier defended his royal visitor over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
