Trump and His Soulless Cronies Have Managed to Suck the Joy Out of the World Cup
March 5, 2026
Even football is not safe from Trump’s reverse Midas touch.
U.S. President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the official draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 5, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Jia Haocheng/Getty Images)
I have been a critic of the World Cup for over two decades. Read books like this one by Andrew Jennings Crazy! : The secret world of Fifa: bribes, electoral fraud and ticket scandals and my own investigative journalism on the ground in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014 convinced me that football’s governing body, FIFA, is not only a totally corrupt and immoral entity, but also a supporter of dictators and a bulwark against democracy. (Since those days, under the leadership of Gianni Infantino, it has further transformed into a corroded husk ruled by authoritarian gnomes.)
The three main outcomes for countries hosting the World Cup, as I saw time and time again, were debt, travel and the militarization of public space. The main differences – whether Durban or Rio – lay in the language used to cover up and explain the corruption scandals that followed. And yet, despite all this, there was also a fourth element: joy. The people of these countries were generous and enthusiastic hosts. Bars have turned into parties. The parties have turned into bacchanals. And the bacchanals became hyper-focused watch parties, as everyone went from rejoicing to paying attention to the most popular sport in the world.
We now have 100 days until the United States – along with Canada and Mexico – hosts the World Cup. In the United States, we certainly face financial chaos, fears of displacement (which can be witnessed by unhoused people in former host cities), and hypermilitarization. Plus, this World Cup could end up being an ice-fueling frenzy on both foreign and domestic participants. But beyond these questions, it is also the first World Cup in my memory without expectation or joy.
The 2026 World Cup has so far been shrouded in a dark fog. First, as the United States and Israel launch a war against the Iranian people, the “FIFA Peace Prize” that pathetic Trump aide Infantino awarded our decrepit president last year has gone from pathetic pity to horrible irony.
The Iranian football team was scheduled to play two group stage matches in Los Angeles and Seattle for this year’s cup. Now they will almost certainly lose their matches. “What is certain is that after this attack we cannot look forward to the World Cup with hope,” Mehdi Taj, Iran’s top football official, said after the bombing began last weekend. If the Iranian team were forced to withdraw from the tournament, they would become the first in 75 years to do so, voluntarily or not.
Trump, for his part, scoffed at the idea of Iran missing the World Cup. “I don’t really care,” Trump said Policy. “I think Iran is a heavily defeated country. They run on steam.”
Current number
Then there is ICE. The administration’s deadly shock troops are official parts of the Cup’s security apparatus, raising security fears among fans. Countries issue travel advisories about coming to the United States for events. International tourism has been hampered, now that enjoying world football carries the risk of ending up detained indefinitely in an airport hangar or accidentally placed in a secret prison in El Salvador, undermining a key economic argument for hosting the World Cup. The administration, however, refused to rule out ICE operations being fully effective. This World Cup could end up being a frenzy fueling the ice on foreign and domestic participants.
And of course, there are the matches scheduled in Mexico, which is currently facing a new wave of drug-related violence after the military assassination of a cartel leader in Jalisco. Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is scheduled to host four matches. High-profile football matches have already been canceled due to recent bouts of violence. ESPN deviated from its “no politics rule”, asking if matches were suspended, “could FIFA World Cup matches follow?” » Even though president Claudia Sheinbaum insists there is no risk to fans coming to the tournament, people will inevitably be cautious – that’s not something she or anyone can guarantee.
But it’s not just the war with Iran or the cartel wars that are disfiguring this year’s World Cup. Usually, host cities organize World Cup “fan parties”. These are ways for people who can’t afford tickets to watch the games on large outdoor screens, hang out with thousands of other football fans and experience the general atmosphere. This year, all American fan festivals, which were to take place in six cities, were reduced or even canceled altogether. Cities are not receiving the federal funds needed to finance them, which the Republican Party attributes to the blocking of Homeland Security funds. Most notably, the “fan fests” of New York and New Jersey broke with tradition and tickets sold to what was supposed to be and always was a free event, only to cancel it altogether.
When I think of Rio’s “fan parties,” which were just as fun – sometimes more fun – than the matches themselves, the New York/New Jersey event, paid for and then canceled, seems an apt symbol of the sadness of this country under the authoritarian eye of the current regime and the likely pity of this World Cup. Only these people could get the maximum enjoyment from the Cup.
Yet this is fitting for a country ruled by chaos and fear. Even football is not safe from Trump’s reverse Midas touch. FIFA is only reaping what it sows.
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding popularity couldn’t have been clearer: rampant corruption and billions of dollars’ worth of personal enrichment during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided solely by his own abandoned sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Today, an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire across the region and Europe. A new “forever war” – with an ever-increasing likelihood of US troops on the ground – could very well be upon us.
As we have seen time and time again, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory justifications for attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are threatened by non-citizens registered to vote. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
In these dark times, independent journalism is the only one that can uncover the lies that threaten our republic – and civilians around the world – and shine a light on the truth.
The nation‘s experienced team of writers, editors and fact-checkers understand the scale of what we face and the urgency with which we must act. That’s why we publish critical reporting and analysis on the war with Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more.
But this journalism is only possible with your support.
This month of March, The nation must raise $50,000 to ensure we have the resources to produce reports and analysis that set the record straight and empower people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?
