It took a while, but U.S. President Donald Trump was never going to let the 2026 World Cup staged largely on home soil go by without his involvement.
After failing to attend the first 102 fixtures staged this summer across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Trump is set to feature heavily at Sunday’s final. To make sure his presence was felt before Spain and Argentina duke it out in the smoke of New Jersey, the President staged a surreal press conference on Friday evening.
Stood beside the glistening World Cup trophy and behind the presidential seal, Trump held court, meandering between tactical analysis of the knockout stage to appraisals of opera singers. Billionaires were commanded to stand up like naughty children in front of the rest of the class and plans for a future cross-continental World Cup were joked about.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who squirmed through much of Trump’s diatribe at his left elbow, stole the first few minutes of everyone’s attention by calling the 2026 World Cup “the greatest human, social and culture event that mankind has ever witnessed.” The 16 minutes which followed were some of the strangest.
Criticism of Thomas Tuchel’s England Tactics
“What do I know about soccer?” Trump repeated during his monologue. It appeared that he knew enough to join in with pile-on England manager Thomas Tuchel has suffered through in the aftermath of his side’s limp semifinal defeat to Argentina.
Like so many critics, Trump thought the Three Lions took a destructively defensive approach after taking a 1–0 lead. Intriguingly, the President cited the positioning of Harry Kane as a particular issue.
“You have a great player in England who I play golf with. You know that, right? Harry, who’s been fantastic. I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive player,” Trump argued.
“They took the lead, and they took their best player, and they put him on defense. Now, we got to be a little offensive, right?
“But no, I’m not going to call it. Look, what do I know about coaching? But that was a little unusual.”
Tuchel has staunchly defended his decisions, arguing—with some justification—that he was simply trying to bolster the defensive stance his players had already dropped into. When pushed specifically on Kane’s position, the German coach argued: “That’s what you do if [you] defend in a block. That’s what team spirit and mentality is translated to. If we are pushed back in a deep block then Harry defends in a deep block.”
Lionel Messi Adoration
In a further appraisal of that chaotic England-Argentina semifinal, Trump lauded Lionel Messi’s role in creating the winning goal. “I watched that pass that Messi made,” he began. “Not knowing as much as the people in this room, I know about sports, and I know a little bit about soccer. But I watched Messi, and he was well-guarded, right? Well-guarded.
“And all of a sudden, he’s standing on the right. Do you understand what I’m talking about? I don’t know if anybody... I just noticed it. Nobody talked about it. I just noticed it. I said, ‘He’s so well-guarded by a great player.’ And then he moved to the right, and the other player was just standing there.
“And he had plenty of time. He kicked it. It was within, I would say, a quarter of an inch of being perfect. And that was the end of the game. It was brilliant. And he’s a great guy.”
Messi did indeed shift to the right wing as England hunkered in a deeper and deeper block, reprising the position from which he had so much success in orchestrating Argentina’s comeback against Egypt in the round of 16.
Cristiano Ronaldo Gets His Shoutout
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