BTS to visit the White House to discuss Asian inclusion and anti-Asian hate crimes

Today, the White House released a statement announcing that BTS will be meeting with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, May 31 as part of the administration’s Asian American And Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Month events. Consequence adds that BTS will be there to “participate in a discussion about Asian inclusion and representation.” The South Korean pop megastars will also be there to discuss increasing severity of anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes and the White House statement also says Biden will highlight BTS’ “platform as youth ambassadors who spread a message of hope and positivity across the world.” (On a related note, this will be an excellent photo-op for Biden and a chance to show that he gets young people.)

Oddly, this isn’t the first time BTS (which recently pulled off a super cool art heist performance back at the Grammys in April) and Biden have intersected in a big way: In 2020, BTS released the music video for “Dynamite,” its first all-English single, on the same night that Biden accepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention—and, like, immediately after his speech. Did Biden ultimately win the presidential election because of the good vibes generated by “Dynamite” and BTS that night? Yeah, probably.

This is also the latest example of BTS’ extremely successful foray into the United States, with the group having already made its way onto the McDonalds menu with last year’s excellent BTS meal (Chicken McNuggets and fries? BTS, you’ve done it again!), so where else can the group go after that and visiting the White House? The Super Bowl Halftime Show? Maybe BTS itself can be the new sponsor that the NFL wants to bring in?

The White House statement, courtesy of CNN’s Betsy Klein, is below. If there’s any way to watch this stuff from home, more information will probably be available next week.