Donald Trump has again said he’d pressure Fifa to remove 2026 World Cup games from a host city on the basis of that city’s politics, with Boston becoming the third such city to come in for threats from the US president. Trump also said he would consider similar action against Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics on account of potential safety issues.
Trump has no legal authority to directly take either action, but he can apply pressure to each competition’s governing body to move host cities.
His comments came at a press event with Argentinian president Javier Milei, who was visiting the White House after the announcement of a $20bn bailout for the South American country. Towards the end of the event, a reporter asked Trump about a recent “street takeover” in Boston that saw police officers attacked and a police car set aflame, and if the concerns raised by the incident could result in the revocation of hosting duties for next year’s expanded 48-team soccer tournament. The reporter also asked if Trump would work with Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, to address the issue.
“We could take them away,” Trump said of the World Cup games, which are due to be held at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, about 22 miles southwest of Boston. “Their mayor is not good … she’s radical left, and they’re taking over parts of Boston. That’s a pretty big statement, right?”
Street takeovers, a social media-driven phenomenon that sees large crowds of people gather on city streets late at night to perform stunts in cars, have been a repeated nuisance in American cities since the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns. Recent such gatherings have turned violent in Massachusetts, including in Boston. However, the gatherings are generally not seen as being tied to any particular political ideology.
“If someone is doing a bad job, and I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni [Infantino], the head of Fifa, who is phenomenal, and say let’s move it to another location,” Trump said on Tuesday. “And he would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it. Very easily, he’d do it.”
Infantino has made no secret of his efforts to be publicly aligned with Trump ahead of next year’s tournament, due to be hosted in 11 cities across the US along with two in Canada and three in Mexico. The Fifa president has appeared at several Oval Office events, had Trump deliver the Club World Cup trophy to Chelsea after that tournament’s final (where the US president overstayed his welcome during the trophy lift), and has even delayed his own organization’s congress in order to accompany Trump on a trip to the Middle East earlier in 2025.
Most recently, Infantino surfaced in Egypt alongside Trump for the Gaza summit. The Fifa Club World Cup trophy and the Fifa men’s World Cup trophy, gifts from Infantino, have both found seemingly permanent spots among Trump’s Oval Office decor.
That has not stopped Trump from threatening the removal of World Cup games from other US host cities. On 25 September, Seattle and the San Francisco came in his crosshairs, with Trump saying both cities were “run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing”, while criticizing the safety level of both locales and claiming that games could be removed.
Fifa vice-president Victor Monatgliani rebuffed Trump’s claims when he responded days later at a conference in London.
“It’s Fifa’s tournament, Fifa’s jurisdiction, Fifa makes those decisions,” Montagliani said. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans. That’s the beauty of our game, that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s answer to a question about Boston veered into a similar threat to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“If I thought LA was not going to be prepared properly, I would move it to another location if I had to,” he said. “On that one I’d probably have to get a different kind of a permission, but we would do that.”
The permission Trump refers to would need to come through the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Their president, Kirsty Coventry, was elected to her position in March and has yet to hold a public appearance with Trump, though she said that she would like a sit-down with him at some point.
Trump also criticized California governor Gavin Newsom’s handling of this year’s LA wildfires, saying that a similar situation could result in the removal of the Games.
“If he doesn’t play ball, we’re gonna have to be very tough,” Trump said.
His message was similarly clear for Boston.
“Boston better clean up their act, he said. “That’s all I can say.”
