Donald Trump Is Following Notorious Dictator's Playbook With World Cup, Expert Warns

Jules Boykoff, an expert in international sports politics, spotted exactly how Trump will use the tournament as a “political life raft.”

President Donald Trump has made a serious effort to use sports to his political advantage.

Just this year, he’s invited Lionel Messi and his team to the White House for a photo opportunity, attended UFC matches, began constructing a UFC arena on the South Lawn and shared plans to attend an NBA Finals game, all while his unpopular Iran war marches on.

Now, with the FIFA World Cup less than a month away, one expert has revealed to HuffPost exactly how Trump is using the same “tried and true methods” that one notorious dictator used when his country hosted an early version of the tournament.

“If you look at the way [Benito] Mussolini, for example, cozied up to the athletes at the World Cup in 1934, he just wanted to be around these kinds of macho guys,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University and an expert in international sports politics.

“Well, you can see [that in] the same kind of thing that Trump does all the time.”

In his new book “Red Card,” Boykoff, a former professional soccer player who once represented the US on the under-23........

© HuffPost