President Trump Gifts A Baseball And Stick To President Lee

JAKARTA - United States President Donald Trump awarded a set of baseball sports souvenirs for President Lee Jae-myung, after his second meeting late last month on the sidelines of the APEC Summit.

After receiving Silla's gold crown replica, President Trump awarded a baseball bat and ball to President Lee, who was chosen to honor the joint history of the sport first introduced to Korea by American missionaries.

According to South Korean government officials, the prize set includes a baseball bat signed by Dylan Crews, an outer for Washington Nationals, and a baseball printed with Trump's Presidential stamp, according to The Korea Times November 5.

"President Trump awarded President Lee a set of baseball supplies," presidential office spokesman Kim Nam-jun said, quoted by The Chosun Daily.

US officials said the prize was meant to celebrate "deep cultural ties and shared values between the United States and South Korea," stressing the role of baseball as a symbol of the old friendship between the two countries.

President Trump looks happy with the prize he received from Seoul. After the summit in Gyeongju, he reportedly instructed his aides to load a replica of the gold crown and Grand Order of Magunghwa medal onto the Air Force One plane, before leaving for Washington following the US-Chinese meeting on the same day.

A South Korean government source said President Trump appeared to want to bring the items home rather than sending them later via diplomatic channels.

"According to US officials, President Trump has chosen a place in the Oval Room to display the crown and medal," the official said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Kim said, "There are also reports that President Trump has decided where to put the prize in the Oval Room, the White House executive office."