President Donald Trump honored the 2025 NCAA basketball champion Florida Gators at the White House on Wednesday, proclaiming that “lesser teams would have crumbled” during its nail-biting title game victory. “It was looking bad,” Trump said, noting that Houston led by as many as 12 points in a game Florida rallied to win 65-63 in San Antonio in April. ”Did you think you were going to win?" Florida (36-4) delivered four come-from-behind victories in six March Madness wins. The Gators led the finale for a total of 64 seconds, including the last 46 ticks of a contest that was in limbo until the final sequence. Trump recounted Alijah Martin making two free throws to put the Gators ahead to stay with 46.5 seconds left, and asked Martin if he was nervous. “Lesser teams would have crumbled,” the president said. Florida secured the program’s third title in basketball, and Trump noted that it is the only school to have a trio of NCAA titles in that sport and in football. When the Gators basketball team won back-to-back NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, they visited President George W. Bush at the White House.