There’s been some speculation about why, at the last minute, Tom Brady didn’t join his teammates for the Patriots’ visit to the White House last week.
Surely, Brady, who’s been a golfing buddy of President Trump’s and kept one of the Republican’s “Make America Great Again’’ hats in his locker at Gillette Stadium, wasn’t boycotting like teammates LeGarrette Blount, Alan Branch, and Martellus Bennett, among others.
Officially, Brady attributed his absence to “personal family matters,’’ a reference perhaps to his mother, who’s battling cancer. And it’s also not the first time Brady skipped a visit to the White House. In 2015, No. 12 wasn’t with the team when it was honored by President Obama. That time, Brady cited a previously planned “family commitment.’’
Could it be that Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen, urged him not to go to the Trump White House? Maybe.
The supermodel hasn’t shared her opinion of President Trump publicly, but we’ve been told by a source close to the glamazon that she “loathes’’ him. Prior to last fall’s election, a commenter on Bundchen’s Instagram page asked if she and her husband would be supporting Trump, and the Brazilian beauty wrote “NO!’’
Not long after President Trump proposed his controversial travel ban, Bundchen posted a picture of herself at a United Nations event at the American Museum of Natural History with the caption: “The beauty of the human race is in its diversity. We are all connected and we are stronger when we come together. Only ego, beliefs and fears separate us. #weareone #weareallimmigrants #morelove.’’ (It looks like #weareallimmigrants has since been removed from the caption.)
You’ll also recall that in the days after Trump was elected last November, Brady was asked about his support for the president and he declined to answer, saying: “I talked to my wife, she says I can’t talk about politics anymore. I think that’s a good decision.’’
At the very least, it appears Bundchen wasn’t too upset that her husband wasn’t with the team at the White House. At about the same time the Pats were being greeted by Trump, Bundchen tweeted a link to an upcoming anti-Trump climate rally.
Though she later deleted the tweet, Bundchen had written: “March for climate, jobs, and justice. To change everything, we need everyone,’’ and included a link to the People’s Climate March, which will be held in D.C. on April 29. Trump has called global warming a “hoax’’ and taken steps to eliminate regulations on the fossil fuel industry.
In Trump’s remarks at the White House, he didn’t mention Brady’s name even once, despite the fact that the Pats signal-caller was the Super Bowl MVP. It could be that the pair’s bromance is over, and Bundchen may be the reason why.