'The View' Co-Host Whoopi Goldberg Urges All Knicks Players to Visit Trump at White House — After Prez Sparked Outrage for Attending Finals Game
Whoopi Goldberg supported the NY Knicks going to the White House after their championship win.
June 18 2026, Published 3:38 p.m. ET
Whoopi Goldberg clashed with her fellow co-hosts on The View once again after the coach for the New York Knicks accepted a controversial invitation to the White House after their NBA Championship win, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
On the Thursday, June 18, installment of the chat-fest, Goldberg, 70, hoped that the entire team would agree to make the trip.
Whoopi Goldberg Supports NY Knicks' White House Visit
Whoopi Goldberg is a New York Knicks fan.
"I want them to go," the Sister Act star declared. "I want all those Black men to stand in our house and remind all of those people, as we tried to remind the vice president, that when you try to destroy one part of history, you’re destroying all of our histories."
"And they, as champions, not only as amazing basketball players, but as people who were down and came back up, [can say], ‘This is what this looks like. Yeah, this is what this looks like,’" Goldberg continued. "So I want them to go, I want them to go. If only so the kids know that nobody, nobody can keep you down."
Sara Haines Worries Players Are in a 'Really Precarious Position'
Sunny Hostin worried the event would be 'politicized.'
However, not all of the co-hosts felt the same way. Sunny Hostin voiced concerns that Donald Trump would try to "politicize" the event honoring the sports team.
Meanwhile, Sara Haines pointed out that Knicks coach Jim Dolan's friendship with the Prez, 80, could make the situation awkward for any team members who may be uncomfortable attending and might want to decline.
"This puts the players in a really precarious position," she shared. "I know you might get people that refuse to go, I just think it’s not fair to take any of the flowers and the beauty of this moment and its unity and try to then place it on the player’s backs."
Whoopi Goldberg said the moment needed to be about 'more than' Trump.
But Goldberg stood firm in her stance that this special occasion couldn't just be about Trump and politics.
"For me, for this moment, it must be about more than him," she added.
This comes after Goldberg also fiercely defended Trump's decision to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals amid worries that street shutdowns and security perimeters would inconvenience average New Yorkers.
"Everyone that is from New York and all the implants like myself are going, and I just think it added a lot of chaos to something that the people have been waiting for for 27 years," Haines said earlier this month.
Whoopi Goldberg Defends Trump Attending NBA Finals
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The NY Knicks won the championship despite losing Game 3.
But Goldberg declared that "anyone who’s a Knicks fan should be there" – including President Trump and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
"You earn the right as a Knicks fan. I don’t care who you are. I don’t have to like you, I don’t have to dig you. If I was as big as them, I’d still be going," she continued. "All we need to concentrate on is putting our good energy towards the Knicks. That’s what this is about."
Despite Goldberg's high hopes, the Knicks lost that Game 3 to the San Antonio Spurs, sparking outrage online and rumors from critics that Trump was bad luck for the team.
"We had an impeccable vibe in New York until the orange man showed and put the bad juju onto Madison Square Garden," Hostin lamented the next day. "Now, we’re gonna have to go back in and sage the whole Madison Square Garden to get the bad juju out."
