Revealed: The stunning personal gift Donald Trump gave Cristiano Ronaldo at the White House saved for his most special guests

Donald Trump marked Cristiano Ronaldo’s trip to the Oval Office this week by gifting him a golden key to the White House, it can be revealed.

The United States President met the Portuguese soccer star when he visited as part of a delegation of officials from Saudi Arabia, led by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It was the first time Ronaldo has been seen publicly in the US since a 2017 rape accusation from an American teacher, which he has always vehemently denied.

But he was welcomed with open arms by Trump, who gave the 40-year-old and his fiancee Georgina Rodrigez a tour of his office and a present to remember the occasion. 

The key is a rare and significant honor that is personal to Trump, who designed it himself, rather than convention for other US Presidents. Ronaldo’s fellow recipients include Elon Musk, former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Israel PM Bibi Netanyahu – the first person Trump gave one to in 2020.

Ronaldo, the first sportsperson to receive the gift, held the key as he and Rodriguez posed for a picture with Trump at his desk, and an official later confirmed to the Daily Mail that it was a key to the White House.

In another picture of Trump and Ronaldo getting to know each other, the soccer star can be seen holding a model of a B-2 stealth bomber that Trump used to attack Iran’s nuclear facilites in June.

A single B-2 bomber costs around $2billion and Trump sent seven to Iran, dropping six massive 30,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs and 30 Tomahawk missiles to destroy nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan.

Trump hailed the operation ‘a spectacular military success’ at the time and new photos indicate he may well have taken a moment to tell his famous guest all about the raid.

‘Ronaldo is a GREAT GUY,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Wednesday night, alongside an AI video showing them playing soccer together in the Oval Office. ‘Loved meeting him at the White House. Really smart, and cool!!!’

In May, Trump gave Elon Musk the same gift, thanking him for his work with DOGE. 

‘Elon gave an incredible service. There’s nobody like him, and he had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame, because he’s an incredible patriot,’ Trump said, a couple of months before their friendship publicly collapsed. 

In a sign of relationships reparing, Musk was at the White House for the Saudi dinner on Tuesday and posed alongside Ronaldo for a selfie.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, opened up on Trump’s thinking around designing the key in his 2022 memoir.

‘When Trump met with Bibi, he whipped out his signature gift — an oversize bronze ‘key to the White House’ in a wooden box carved with the presidential seal,’ Kushner wrote in his ‘Breaking History’ book. ‘Trump had designed the key himself to give to special guests.’

Ronaldo has been on the Trump charm offensive for months and there are plenty of reasons as to why he might have needed to forge a friendship with the president.

His ongoing absence from the United States coincided with the rape allegations. Since the claims were made by American teacher Kathryn Mayorga, Ronaldo had not been involved in any exhibition games held in the US involving the teams he has played for – Real Madrid, Juventues, Manchester United and his current one, the Saudi club Al Nassr.

The matter was thrown back into the spotlight on Sunday when Portugal clinched qualification for next summer’s World Cup, where the majority of the tournament is held in the United States. Ronaldo and his Portugal team are also scheduled to play the United States in Atlanta next March in a friendly. 

Revealing details of the alleged sexual assault in a 2017 interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Mayorga claimed Ronaldo raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.

The American woman had reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo in 2010, but spoke out with her accusations seven years later in an effort to seek millions more than the $375,000 (£304,000) sum she had received.

The lawsuit against Ronaldo, who has consistently and strongly denied the allegations, was dismissed by a US judge in 2022 because the accuser’s lawyer relied on leaked and stolen records.

In July, Trump was gifted a Portugal soccer jersey by Portuguese European Council president Antonio Costa. It was signed by Ronaldo, who wrote: ‘To president Donald J. Trump, Playing for Peace.’

And last week, in an interview with Trump’s old friend Piers Morgan, Ronaldo said he hoped to meet Trump and praised his peacemaking efforts.

‘He is one of the guys who can help to change the world,’ Ronaldo said. ‘One of the most important guys is the US President.

‘He is one of the guys I wish to meet to sit and have a nice talk. If it is here, or in the US, wherever he wants, I know he was here in Saudi with our boss MBS (Mohammed bin Salman). 

‘I wish one day to meet him because he is one of the guys who can make things happen and I like people like that.’

Ronaldo was also sent off in a Portugal World Cup qualifier against Ireland on November 13 for violent conduct. Typically, when players are sent off for that, they are banned for up to three competitive games. That’s for FIFA, soccer’s governing body, to decide.

Ronaldo missed his team’s final World Cup qualifier against Armenia because of the red card but Portugal’s next competitve matches will now be at the World Cup in June.

So will FIFA impose a ban that keeps him on the sidelines of the biggest stage of all? 

Given Ronaldo’s new friend Trump has FIFA President Gianni Infantino – also at the Saudi dinner – in his back pocket, it would be surprising if FIFA did ban him for any longer. But a lesser star than Ronaldo could not expect the same treatment.