Trump wanted to star at the World Cup, but politics may spoil the party

This follows concerns that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could conduct sweeps for undocumented migrants at games involving South American teams with large followings in the United States, though the administration has tried to tamp down those fears.

Soaring ticket prices, meanwhile, have priced many fans out of games, leading to accusations that FIFA sees the World Cup finals more as a money grab than a celebration of football’s traditionally working-class fans. Out-of-reach ticket prices are a metaphor for affordability crises stalking western societies and economic inequalities faced by Global South countries. Even Trump balked at tickets costing $1,000 for the first Team USA game. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you,” he told the New York Post.

More broadly, Trump’s searing second term, which has seen him slap tariffs on competing economies and lambaste the societies of close allies, has created an atmosphere of global tension that sits uneasily with FIFA’s claims to promote unity and joy. For a fleeting moment, there was talk of a European boycott after Trump demanded Denmark hand over Greenland.

This is far from the first global sporting event to be hit by a political storm. The US led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The last World Cup in Qatar was clouded by accusations of human rights abuses, including the deaths of migrant workers in building stadiums.

Before the competition begins, almost every huge sporting event is beset by bad headlines about politics, commercialization and access. But the hyper-politicization of the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted with Canada and Mexico at a time of Western Hemisphere antagonism, has an added ingredient almost guaranteed to cause polarization: Trump.

Infantino’s flattery of the president may backfire
The US president’s tendency to create extreme positive and negative reactions has focused attention on Infantino’s decision to align himself so closely with the US leader.

The FIFA president has been ubiquitous in Washington and Mar-a-Lago. He even showed up at Trump’s Gaza peace summit in Egypt last year. After the US president’s second-term inaugural rally, he declared on Instagram, “Together, we will make not only America great again, but also the entire world.”

This apparent endorsement seemed to conflict with FIFA’s statutes, which stress it remains “neutral in matters of politics.” Infantino, however, defended his friendship with Trump at a meeting in Northern Ireland last year. “I think it is absolutely crucial for the success of a World Cup to have a close relationship with the president,” Infantino was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

Still, eve-of-tournament controversies raise the question of just how much leverage FIFA has won with Trump.

“Infantino might say, ‘(This is) what do I have to do as president of this organization, to secure political support, so that everything goes smoothly,’” said Alexander Cooley, a senior nonresident fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. But FIFA may have walked into a political trap. “I think what you’re seeing is that the Trump administration really doesn’t care about global public opinion.”

In a press conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, Infantino did indeed argue that his relationship with Trump was critical, saying it would have been impossible to organize a World Cup in the US without the president.

“I have a great relationship with President Trump. I am very happy about that,” he said.