“In addition to receiving recommendations from the public and applicable presidential advisory bodies, the staff secretary has solicited nominees from the cabinet and White House senior staff,” Mr. Deere said in an email. “These nominees are then vetted for presentation to the president.”
But a willingness to visit this particular White House doesn’t hurt.
Mr. Penske, who was on hand Thursday to receive his award, visited the White House in June to celebrate his winning Indianapolis 500 team, making him part of a handful of sports owners who have ignored the partisan undercurrents surrounding Mr. Trump’s honoring of sports teams. During that event, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Penske and his involvement with NASCAR, which he said he liked because the league’s chairman endorsed him.
“What an honor it was to get a call from the president,” Mr. Penske said at the time. “It was very humbling.”
The reason behind the honor has mystified other recipients who don’t have overt political leanings. Tom Stevens, Babe Ruth’s grandson, said that when a White House aide first reached out to him last fall, he thought the email invitation was spam.
“I ignored them because I thought it was akin to a Nigerian prince who wanted me to help him liberate $4 million,” Mr. Stevens, who does not share the president’s political views, said in an interview. (He responded to the second message.) At some point in the process, Mr. Stevens said, he was asked by White House officials if his family had made any political contributions to Mr. Trump. It hadn’t.
Mr. Stevens, 67, said he and about a dozen friends and family members were invited to the White House last November for pictures with Mr. Trump and Melania Trump, the first lady.
The president, he said, did not seem particularly well versed in his grandfather’s contributions to baseball or philanthropic efforts, but he said that the Trumps “couldn’t have been nicer.” He said that despite Mr. Trump’s “divisive” approach to the presidency, he and his family were just happy for the recognition.