The Red Sox players will be almost divided along the racial lines for the visit to the White House

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For starters, manager Alex Cora, who is Puerto Rican, jumps. Mookie Betts, American star, David Price, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rafael Devers, Hector Velazquez, Xander Bogaerts, Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez have also declined the invitation, according to the Boston Globe. They are all colored players. Some members of the team have not yet made known their intentions.
"Alex Cora has confirmed that the paper would not travel to meet the president, so basically the White Sox will be leaving," Boston sports columnist Steve Buckley wrote. tweeted earlier this week.
Price has retweeted it, add that more than 38,000 followers of Buckley "should see this tweet".

Thursday's split only highlighted the president's rich history with top athletes.

Some have publicly shared the reasons why they refused the invitation, others did not.

Trump has long been a racial lightning rod, from his lukewarm response to the violence of white nationalists to his fierce anti-immigrant rhetoric throughout his tenure and campaign.

Earlier this week, he invited golfer Tiger Woods to the White House to award him the Medal of Freedom. Woods and Trump have a long history together, both professionally and personally.

But he frequently criticized African-American NFL players who protested police brutality by kneeling in the national anthem. The players said the protests, which began in 2016, aim to draw attention to what they see as a systemic bias against people of color.

Trump has urged other athletes not to travel to the White House to celebrate his recent victories, including Washington Capitals 'Braden Holtby after the team's victory in 2018 for the Stanley Cup and Malcolm Jenkins' Philadelphia Eagles after the Super Bowl victory in 2018.

For Cora, from Caguas (Puerto Rico), this is the government's widely criticized response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, which claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people in 2017. Cora said that he did not feel comfortable in the White House.

"Unfortunately, we are still struggling, we continue to struggle, some people still lack basic necessities, others do not have electricity, and many homes and schools are lacking. in a deplorable state, almost a year and a half after the passage of Hurricane Maria, "said Cora to Puerto Rican. language newspaper El Nuevo Día.

"Even though the US government has helped, there is still a long way to go and it's OUR reality, I've used my voice many times to make sure that Puerto Ricans are not forgotten and that my absence (at the White House) is no different As such, for the moment, I do not feel comfortable celebrating at the White House, "said Cora.

Cora revealed last year that during contract negotiations with the Red Sox in 2017, he had requested under his contract a plane filled with supplies to help people in difficulty after the storm. In January 2018, he traveled to his hometown with several Boston personalities to personally deliver the supplies, including diapers, batteries, funds and new baseball equipment for the neighborhood kids.
Cora seemed to capture the president's attention – without responding directly to him, Trump defended his Puerto Rico response on Monday tweet, citing misleading statistics on aid.

Asked Wednesday on the absence of Cora, Trump again declared a deceptive figure.

"Puerto Rico, for you to understand, we gave Puerto Rico $ 91 million," said Trump, adding that it was "the largest amount allocated to a state" for relief operations in disaster.

More than half of this $ 91 billion is based on White House estimates of the costs that FEMA could incur in the coming years.

The aid amounts to $ 41 billion and has been announced by several agencies, which has not yet been spent, according to the Washington Post.

The additional $ 50 billion, officials at the Post Office said, "(refer) to an internal estimate by the Office of Management and Budget of potential liabilities over the duration of the disaster to be incurred in part of the Robert T. Stafford Assistance Act relief and emergency campaign of 1988. The estimate has been described as a high-end estimate likely to change from year to year. "

CNN's Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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