{"slug": "the-world-cup-stood-as-a-break-from-u-s-politics-then-trump-got-involved", "title": "The World Cup Stood as a Break From U.S. Politics. Then Trump Got Involved.", "summary": "President Donald Trump's phone call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino led to the overturning of a red card suspension for U.S. player Folarin Balogun during the World Cup, sparking debate over political influence in sports. Belgium defeated the U.S. 4-1 and mocked Trump with his signature dance, highlighting the president's tendency to insert himself into apolitical events.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...**By Luke Broadwater**\n\nWASHINGTON — For nearly a month, President Donald Trump had stayed away from the World Cup, not attending games and instead preoccupying himself with Washington construction projects and a war with Iran.\n\nBut as the biggest sporting event on Earth [enthralled Americans of all political stripes](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/01/for-usa-world-cup-fans-july-fourth-comes-early-with-bay-area-match/) in cities stretching from coast to coast, the allure proved too much to resist.\n\nThe president’s now famous — or infamous, depending on your view — [phone call to the president of FIFA](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/06/trump-us-world-cup-red-card-folarin-balogun/) before the soccer organization overturned the suspension of an American star produced endless debate about political influence. It also generated locker room bulletin board material for [Belgium, which handed the United States a humiliating 4-1 defeat](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/06/usmnt-vs-belgium/) Monday night.\n\nBelgium’s team celebrated the victory by performing Trump’s signature dance and posting a two-word message online: [“Overturn this.”](https://x.com/BelRedDevils/status/2074315204704240101)\n\nThe unusual melding of politics and sports underscored a truism of the Trump era: The president has yet to find an area of American, or even global, life in which he is unwilling to assert himself. There are seemingly no previously apolitical events that can escape his pull.\n\nIt is perhaps unsurprising that Trump, who loves both sports and the limelight, inserted himself in a situation in which previous U.S. presidents might have shown restraint. He has long attempted to capitalize politically on sports controversies. During his first term, he frequently criticized NFL players who knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice — a movement led by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He has openly boasted that he uses the issue of transgender athletes — with San Jose State as the center of debate — as a surefire political winner for Republicans around election time.\n\nAnd he has found in certain segments of the world of sports a base of support that has at times eluded him in other circles. After Trump was ostracized from social media platforms and by many in the business community after the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, he received a hero’s welcome at a UFC event. In his second term, when Trump failed to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, awarded the U.S. president a newly created “FIFA Peace Prize.”\n\n“I’m a person that loves sports and was a good athlete,” Trump said Monday. “And I understand sports really well. Really well.”\n\nThe president has also shown little regard for the appearance of improper influence that might have kept his predecessors at bay. So when he saw what he called a “very unfair” [red card against American player Folarin Balogun](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/01/folarin-baloguns-world-cup-red-card-u-s-players-coach-weigh-in-as-suspension-looms/) in the team’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week, he reached out to Infantino and made a remarkable request that FIFA review the suspension.\n\nInfantino has insisted that the later reinstatement of Balogun was a result of “the legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies.” But it was the first time since 1962, when the rules were less clear, that FIFA had overturned an in-tournament World Cup game suspension.\n\nThe incident was a reminder of how far Trump has departed from the practice of one of the predecessors he admires, President Calvin Coolidge, who famously quipped, “Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.”\n\nTrump instead has inserted himself into nearly every aspect of American life, no matter how big or small. He has sought to pressure colleges and universities on how to run their institutions. He has targeted law firms and taken ownership shares in American companies. He has taken control of important cultural and artistic organizations. And he has put himself at the center of America’s 250th anniversary celebration.\n\nHe has also concerned himself with matters as small as the composition of drinking straws and the water pressure in toilets. And, of course, rule changes in football.\n\nBut it was his involvement in the other kind of football that sparked global backlash.\n\nThe Union of European Football Associations, the governing body of soccer in Europe, said that FIFA’s decision to overturn Balogun’s suspension “crossed a red line.” The Bosnian soccer association accused Trump of “government interference.” All of which could make for an awkward situation with Trump set to hand out the trophy to the eventual winner.\n\nAnd Iran’s soccer federation, with its country still at war with the United States after Trump launched thousands of airstrikes, took a special joy in the American defeat at the hands — or feet — of Belgium.\n\n“Now the whole world is dancing to celebrate politics’ humiliating defeat by football,” a spokesperson said.\n\nThis article originally appeared in [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/us/politics/trump-world-cup-fifa.html).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-world-cup-stood-as-a-break-from-u-s-politics-then-trump-got-involved", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/07/world-cup-donald-trump-folarin-balogun-fifa-gianni-infantino/", "published_at": "2026-07-07 20:07:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-07 20:31:20.750142+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Donald Trump", "FIFA", "Gianni Infantino", "Folarin Balogun", "Belgium", "United States", "World Cup", "Calvin Coolidge"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-world-cup-stood-as-a-break-from-u-s-politics-then-trump-got-involved", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-world-cup-stood-as-a-break-from-u-s-politics-then-trump-got-involved.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-world-cup-stood-as-a-break-from-u-s-politics-then-trump-got-involved.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-world-cup-stood-as-a-break-from-u-s-politics-then-trump-got-involved.jsonld"}}