At the final moment, Donald Trump finally made his World Cup entrance. And it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
The US president, who has kept largely out of the limelight over the last five weeks, made his major intervention a fortnight ago after USA striker Folarin Balogun had his red card ban suspended, before their last-16 exit to Belgium, after some lobbying from Trump and the US administration.
Trump did take part in a press conference with Fifa president Gianni Infantino on Friday and was always expected to attend the final at the New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday between Spain and Argentina.
Prior to the match, Trump told FOX that the US should host another World Cup “immediately”, saying: “We have to do this again, and we have to do this again while I am around, hear that Gianni?!” It should be noted that the US cannot host again until 2038 at the earliest.
Yet on a day of high drama and big-name American entertainment, here are the main flashpoints involving Trump on Sunday:
Crowd boos
To start, only a small chorus of jeers.
Trump, who arrived on Marine One and took his seat roughly 20 minutes before kick-off next to Infantino, was shown on the four big screens in the stadium just after the American national anthem. At that stage, the boos were brief.
The US president was sat alongside Infantino and wife Melania in a glassed-in section of VIP seats, with fellow host country leaders Mark Carney (Canada) and Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico) in his section.
Trump was then shown on the host broadcast around 15 minutes into the first-half as he was shown the World Cup trophy in his VIP box.
Yet after the match, the boos bellowed out for Trump and Infantino as they entered the pitch for the trophy ceremony. The jeering was perhaps not as loud as when Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, but still very audible.
To be precise, the White House pool report said crowd noise increased to 84 decibels from 78 decibels when Trump entered the pitch.
Player snub
Alongside Infantino, Trump presented the runner-up and winners’ medals to Argentina and Spain players, respectively. Nothing unusual here, given he is the head of state of the predominant host country.
Yet one notable moment came when Argentina defender Cristian Romero, who plays his club football for Tottenham, walked past the US president and did not shake his hand.
Romero did not acknowledge Trump after receiving his medal from Infantino, but he did shake the hands of Sheinbaum and Carney.
Even Spain’s Borja Iglesias, who has criticised Trump in the past, shook the US president’s hand. He did remark pre-match of the potential encounter: “I don’t want to go to prison.”
Failed photobomb
The moment of truth. After awkwardly staying in the middle of Chelsea’s celebrations as Reece James lifted the Club World Cup a year ago, would Trump be front-and-centre again here?
Trump and Infantino both walked over to hand over football’s ultimate prize to Spain captain Rodri. Trump then lingered for a moment, even invoking his famous YMCA dance move, before Infantino looked to chaperone the 80-year-old to the side of the shot as he ran across the players.
Rodri waited momentarily – another key moment of patience from the player of the tournament – before lifting the trophy with Trump lingering awkwardly on the side of the jubilant Spanish squad, before the two presidents applauded the team and departed the stage.
It was still somewhat toe-curdling, but there was no such memorable photobomb this time… despite his best efforts.
Carney confrontation
One of the major talking points in the build-up was the smattering of fog over New York a few days before the final, as a result of severe Canadian wildfires. And Trump voiced his unhappiness with the situation to Carney at the match.
Trump recounted their frank exchange at Joint Base Andrews as he returned to Washington. “It went good, but I told him ‘you got to stop these fires from coming in and poisoning our air’,” the president said of his interaction with the Canadian.
“Our air has been poisoned. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but you know, we got to stop the fires up there. If we can help them, we’ll help them. But maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs. But it was terrible. I mean, you had businesses closing.
“I’ve never remembered this happening. Over the last four or five years, you saw it starting to take place. I never remembered it happening before.”
United States 2038?
Speaking to FOX pre-match, Trump declared that the World Cup should return to the United States “immediately.”
“Based on the numbers, we will be requesting it immediately,” Trump said, while acknowledging there would be “shock” and “anger” at such a decision. “We have to do this again, and we have to do this again while I am around, hear that Gianni?”
Unfortunately, with Spain, Portugal and Morocco confirmed as 2030 hosts and Saudi Arabia the 2034 hosts, the US could not host until 2038 at the earliest – and even that would be an unprecedented gap of just 12 years.
By that point, Trump would be 92 years of age.
