Could Trump play hardball to prevent an MLB lockout?

For many, Trump’s comments are fanciful at best, in the category of his claims to have ended multiple foreign wars and conflicts. Trump, in these boasts, portrays his administration’s foreign policy as uniquely effective at stopping global bloodshed.

Trump said he would like to avoid a Major League Baseball lockout before the Dec. 1 expiration of the owners’ current collective bargaining agreement with players. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Newscom)” data-large-file=”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?w=696″ height=”658″ width=”1024″ src=”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?w=696″ alt=”Trump said he would like to avoid a Major League Baseball lockout before the Dec. 1 expiration of the owners’ current collective bargaining agreement with players. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Newscom)” class=”wp-image-4760536″ srcset=”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg 1400w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?resize=300,193 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?resize=768,494 768w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?resize=1024,658 1024w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?resize=150,96 150w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?resize=696,447 696w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse1.101426.jpg?resize=1068,687 1068w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>

In reality, he can fully or even realistically take credit for ending the long-running feud between Armenia and Azerbaijan, longtime rivals in a mountainous geographic region that acts as a natural bridge between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Trump hosted a historic peace summit on Aug. 8, 2025, at the White House, where Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint declaration to end decades of conflict.

Still, Trump could throw the prestige of the White House into averting a baseball work stoppage. He could muster public pressure, political sway, or the use of executive agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board to, in theory, impose a settlement. And if the Nov. 3 midterm elections go poorly for Republicans, as polls suggest is the case, Trump could be looking for a conversation-changing win that would make him the political savior of America’s national pastime.

A seemingly intractable dispute

MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire a bit over a month after the end of the late October conclusion of the World Series. A potential owner-imposed lockout looms with the two sides so far apart on a range of issues.

Most prominently, owners want to introduce a hard salary cap and floor system, similar to the NFL, NBA, and NHL, citing payroll disparities and a need for competitive balance. Smaller-market owners contend they don’t have the revenue to keep up with some teams’ large spending on player salaries, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

While the Mets haven’t won a World Series since 1986, the Dodgers currently dominate baseball. The Dodgers have won two straight World Series titles and three over the last six.

Los Angeles outfielder Kyle Tucker earns an average of $60 million annually and $240 million total. Los Angeles two-way player Shohei Ohtani’s contract is worth $700 million over a decade. (Jeff Chiu/AP; Frank Franklin II/AP)” data-large-file=”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?w=696″ height=”658″ width=”1024″ src=”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?w=696″ alt=”Los Angeles outfielder Kyle Tucker earns an average of $60 million annually and $240 million total. Los Angeles two-way player Shohei Ohtani’s contract is worth $700 million over a decade. (Jeff Chiu/AP; Frank Franklin II/AP)” class=”wp-image-4760537″ srcset=”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg 1400w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?resize=300,193 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?resize=768,494 768w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?resize=1024,658 1024w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?resize=150,96 150w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?resize=696,447 696w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/WB.WhiteHouse2.101426.jpg?resize=1068,687 1068w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>

On a recent sunny day at Dodger Stadium, as the team awaited its National League Division Series opponent, the Atlanta Braves, fans taking tours of the ballpark were confident of their team prevailing for a third straight title. Los Angeles is led by players earning deep into the eight figures annually, including outfielder Kyle Tucker and two-way player Shohei Ohtani.

The MLB Players Association strongly opposes any cap. The union argues that a spending floor for low-spending teams is the real solution rather than restricting player salaries.

The idea is to compel teams to spend on fielding a quality team, capable of competing for a World Series championship. Take the Milwaukee Brewers, operating this year with a payroll roughly between $128 million and $153.4 million, depending on player benefits and calculations. That places the team well under a proposed $171.2 million minimum. If such a salary floor were adopted, the Wisconsin-based team would be forced to increase team spending by roughly $20 million to $40 million to meet the new threshold.

If Trump entered the fray in a bid to fend off a baseball work stoppage, he wouldn’t exactly come to the table as an objective party. He has publicly sided with MLB owners in their push to establish a hard salary cap.

“If you don’t have a salary cap, you don’t have a sport,” Trump said June 5 while speaking to reporters on Air Force One. “They should have done it a long time ago.”

The president added it was “shocking, frankly, that they didn’t put a cap on many years ago.”

Trump, in his second, nonconsecutive term, has frequently tried to exert influence on sporting matters.

“I know so much about sports,” Trump said at one point during his June 5 exchange with reporters, in which he also addressed the college sports landscape and the NBA Finals.

In baseball, Trump previously claimed credit for improving the chances that the late Pete Rose would be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame. Rose, the all-time hits leader who died in 2024 at 83, was banned from baseball for betting on the sport.

Mixed record of presidents, in office and out, settling baseball labor disputes

Whatever Trump’s views are on the labor issues that threaten MLB’s 2027 season, legally, the president can’t force either side to do anything.

Presidents have been able to use some legal measures against workers’ strikes in the past. But those have usually been temporary tools to intervene in industries such as ports and steel, which can send the nation spiraling economically if not resolved.

MLB is a billion-dollar, privately run league. So, the president can’t compel opposite sides of baseball negotiations to do anything.

Not that previous presidents haven’t tried. The last time the two sides seriously fought over the possible introduction of a cap system, in 1994-95, the players went on strike for 232 days. After the cancellation of the 1994 World Series, President Bill Clinton attempted public mediation.

Clinton appointed a special mediator and called both sides to a high-profile White House summit. But his efforts ultimately failed to broker a voluntary deal. The strike only ended on April 2, 1995, after U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now a Supreme Court justice, issued a preliminary injunction against what she called the owners’ unfair labor practices, forcing a return to previous labor terms.

Nearly a decade earlier, an ex-president was able to stave off a baseball-related dispute. Former President Richard Nixon acted as a binding arbitrator in October 1985 to settle a compensation dispute between the league and the MLB Umpires Association.

Nixon’s intervention came at what turned out to be the height of sorts in his public comeback attempts after resigning the presidency over Watergate on Aug. 9, 1974. In May 1986, Nixon made the cover of Newsweek, with the headline, “He’s Back”. The story focused on Nixon’s postpresidency rehabilitation, detailing how he worked to transform his public image from a disgraced president into an elder statesman and recognized foreign policy expert.

When the current MLB labor agreement expires, Trump will still have more than two years left in the White House. But a precedent of the late Nixon averting a baseball-related strike could loom large in efforts to save the 2027 season.

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Trump and Nixon once shared a long-standing relationship of mutual admiration. Trump, as a celebrity businessman in the 1980s, frequently corresponded with Nixon. And though their White House stints were separated by decades, the presidential pair have shared a common sense of grievance regarding the media.

Negotiating a baseball-related settlement could get added to the Nixon-Trump commonality list. Though with modern-day owners and players so far apart, it’s unclear if Trump’s usual hardball approach to politics would work.

David Mark (@DavidMarkDC) is the managing editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.