Sports

Trump's World Cup Intervention Shows His Sore Loser Philosophy

In sports as in foreign policy, he treats cheating as a virtue. And it doesn’t even work.

Matthew Petti | 7.7.2026 10:43 AM

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(Illustration: Ron Sachs/SIPA/Newscom/NomadSoul1/Envato)

It would have been amazing to see Americans take home our first World Cup on our country's 250th birthday—and during a year that we're hosting. Sadly, that dream was dashed on Monday night, when Belgium beat the U.S. in Seattle 4–1. What made the loss especially embarrassing was that President Donald Trump had tried to tilt the scales in America's favor.

FIFA, the international soccer federation, agreed on Sunday to overturn its suspension of star American striker Folarin Balogun, under pressure from Trump. Balogun had gotten the red card for stepping on the ankle of Bosnian player Tarik Muharemović during his last game. Some observers, such as former elite referee Andy Davies, argued that the incident was a normal accident and Balogun should never have gotten suspended.

Trump channeled his inner Karen and complained to the manager. His advisers assembled lawyers and dug up a past complaint against one of the referees for Trump to bring to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. FIFA agreed to reverse the decision. (Infantino denies any undue political influence.) It was the first such reversal since FIFA's cartoonishly corrupt decision for Brazilian player Mané Garrincha in 1962.

While Trump's supporters tried to make the incident into an example of American badassery, Belgians portrayed it as unmanly and unsportsmanlike. After scoring Belgium's fourth goal, Romelu Lukaku made a mocking phone call gesture, and the team posted his photo to Instagram with the caption, "Overturn this."

The issue isn't about whether the referees made a bad call for Balogun, which happened plenty of times during this World Cup. The issue is that the U.S. government got involved in a sore-loserish way. (Trump didn't even threaten the referees with violence like a traditional American mafioso, instead deciding on a more weaselly course of action.) Balogun himself didn't ask for Trump's help and was ready to accept the referees' verdict before the game.

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