Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts told Politico Monday that it was ‘an honor’ to be considered for a top position in President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
Ricketts, who is reportedly being vetted to serve as Trump’s deputy commerce secretary, met with the president-elect last week.
“The reality is, it was an honor to be invited to interview,” Ricketts told Politico. “If something comes of it, that’s great. If nothing happens, I still will have felt honored to be part of the process. We had a really good conversation but nothing was set in stone."
"A thousand things can happen, so we’ll wait and see. We’ll wait until it's all officially, official,” he added.
During the contentious primary season, the Ricketts family spent millions on negative advertising against Trump, according to the Chicago Tribune. In response to the attacks, Trump sent a veiled threat to the family in February.
“I hear the Rickets [sic] family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me,” Trump tweeted. “They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!”
In March, the president-elect told the Washington Post that he was floating the idea of running ads about the “rotten job” the Ricketts were doing running the Cubs.
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“I’ll start doing ads about their baseball team,” Trump said. “That it’s not properly run or that they haven’t done a good job in the brokerage business lately.”
Nevertheless, the tide ultimately turned and the Ricketts started backing Trump after he was named the GOP nominee, though Laura Ricketts publicly supported Hillary Clinton.
According to Politico, Todd Ricketts reportedly helped raise $30 million for a super PAC the family took control of. In addition, his parents, Joe and Marlene Ricketts, donated $1 million to groups backing Trump’s candidacy.
Ricketts laughed off the spat during Monday’s interview with Politico.
“We supported other candidates in the primary, but there was never a time when we weren’t going to support the Republican nominee for the general election,” Ricketts said.
