Former MLB pitcher Roger Clemens to receive Medal of Freedom, Trump says

President Trump said he will award controversial baseball legend Roger Clemens the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying the honor is a “big step up” from the MLB’s Hall of Fame — which has repeatedly declined to recognize him.

“I’m pleased to announce that we are taking it into our own hands. Forget about the Hall of Fame; he’ll get there someday. I mean, I don’t know how they can keep him out,” Trump said before announcing Clemens’ Medal of Freedom recognition — the U.S.’s highest civilian honor .

Clemens, a Texas-raised former MLB player who ranks among the league’s most decorated pitchers, introduced the president at the start of the San Antonio event — aiming to boost Lone Star State GOP candidates less than a month before November’s elections.

He heaped praise on Trump, calling him a “man that loves our country” and calling on attendees to remember that “he put his life on the line for us.”

The baseball star of over 20 years was the subject of a federal probe surrounding his testimony to Congress about his 2008 performance-enhancing drug use allegations, according to Reuters . He was acquitted of related perjury charges in 2012.

Trump called on the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee in December to induct Clemens, blaming former President Obama’s Justice Department for what he described as using “rumors and innuendo” surrounding the alleged doping to inform its investigation.

“Roger Clemens is the only pitcher who has won 300 games to not have the honor of being enshrined in the Hall of Fame, which is a total travesty!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time. “He never tested positive and, when the Obama DOJ went after him in a criminal case claiming that he did take steroids, Roger, who has always denied taking any drugs, was FULLY ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES.”

Clemens took the stage to thank the president after he announced the award, calling the recognition a “huge honor” and joking that Trump had inflated his statistics in earlier remarks.

“There wouldn’t be another president I’d want to get it from,” the former pitcher, nicknamed “Rocket,” said.