More than three years after 11 U.S. cities were awarded the right to host games during next summer’s World Cup and just two months before the tournament draw, President Trump is threatening to move matches out of places he considers “a little bit dangerous.”
Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters Thursday in the oval office and the cities that appear to be in his cross hairs are Democratic ones such as Seattle and San Francisco, which have not supported the president’s immigration policies.
“They’re run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing,” Trump said.
Seattle is scheduled to host six games, including a group-stage match featuring the U.S. Six matches will also be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. The tournament will kick off June 11 and end July 19 with the final in East Rutherford, N.J.
The president did not mention Inglewood, which will stage eight matches — including at least two U.S. games — at SoFi Stadium. The eight other U.S. host cities are Atlanta; Boston; Arlington, Texas; Houston; Kansas City, Mo., Miami; East Rutherford, N.J.; and Philadelphia. The 2026 World Cup will be the first to be shared by three countries with matches also scheduled to be played in Mexico and Canada.
“If any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup, or for the [2028] Olympics … but for the World Cup in particular, because they’re playing in so many cities, we won’t allow it,” Trump said.
“We’ll move it around a little bit. But I hope that’s not going to happen.”
Trump does not have the authority to relocate World Cup matches, which are overseen by FIFA, soccer’s global governing body. But FIFA leader Gianni Infantino, who Trump calls his “great friend,” has given in to the president before. Just last month, FIFA agreed to Trump’s unusual request to move the World Cup draw, which will set the matchups for the group stage, to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
A FIFA spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. But another person heavily involved in World Cup preparations in multiple cities said Trump’s threat to move games is all bluster.
“As a practical matter, it would be impossible,” said the person, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Culver City), whose district abuts Inglewood, agreed.
“It’s so laughable, it’ll make you want to take a Tylenol,” she said.
“No one is taking this seriously,” she continued. “He has absolutely no power over that. The World Cup is not about Donald Trump. It’s also not about the United States. So another distraction and another example of ego and ignorance.
“My hope is that this president would be focusing on making sure that the US host cities have the infrastructure that they need.”
According to The Athletic, FIFA’s contracts with host cities say the group “shall not have the right for ordinary termination” of the agreements. Most host cities have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for the World Cup and are anticipating a sizable economic boost from the tournament.
A study released last summer by Micronomics, a Long Beach-based economic research and consulting firm, found that the World Cup will have an economic impact of $594 million on Los Angeles County, including $343 million in direct spending from an estimated 180,000 out-of-town visitors.
Trump wouldn’t have to move games to make things difficult for cities he disfavors, however. In July, Congress allocated $625 million in federal funds for World Cup security. According to Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House World Cup task force chaired by Trump, cities will submit their expenditures with requests for reimbursement, but the task force will have wide latitude in deciding which bills to pay.
Trump has made crime and retribution a major theme of his administration, sending national guard troops — or threatening to send them — to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Chicago, all cities with Democratic mayors. Nine of the 11 World Cup host cities in the U.S. have Democratic mayors.
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