US President Donald Trump, joined by FIFA president Gianni Infantino (R), holds the World Cup Trophy as he makes an announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 22, 2025. Trump announced the 2026 World Cup draw will be held on December 5 at Washington's Kennedy Center. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
When President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced in August that the World Cup draw — which will determine team groups for the 2026 games, some of which will be played in the Bay Area — would take place Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., a video circulated globally showing a grinning Trump wearing a red hat that read, “Trump Was Right About Everything.”
“It’s for winners only, and since you’re a winner, you can touch it,” Infantino said, handing the World Cup’s 14-inch, 13.5-pound, 75% pure gold trophy to Trump.
“Can I keep it?” Trump said. “I am not giving it back.”
The exchange was emblematic of a relationship that blossomed between the U.S. president and the president of soccer’s governing body as the United States prepares to host a majority of the matches in next year’s global tournament. Infantino, who assumed his post in 2016, has spent the last year cozying up to Trump, making appearances at the president’s inauguration in January and a peace summit in Egypt in October where Trump helped broker a ceasefire between Gaza and Israel.
In early November, Infantino and FIFA created a peace prize to be awarded during the draw ceremony on Friday, when national teams will be assigned to twelve groups of four each; the official locations, venues and times for these matches will be announced a day after. It is widely assumed that the prize will go to Trump, who has been coveting public recognition for his perceived global peace efforts.
With that gesture and others, FIFA and Infantino have positioned Trump as the face of the 2026 global competition, which is the first World Cup to be hosted by three countries: Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Yet, Trump is unpopular in many of the eleven U.S. cities and regions hosting the matches, including in the Bay Area.
What’s more, the president has targeted Democratic-run cities and states in the first year of his second term, threatening to revoke federal funding and cracking down on immigrants living in the country illegally. Trump’s federalizing of the National Guard in cities like Los Angeles and Portland has been met with fierce pushback from Democratic leaders and sparked a deluge of litigation trying to block his control of the troops.
Whether Trump might try to meddle with the status of a U.S.city set to host games next year – most of which are run by Democrats – became a real possibility following a Nov. 17 Oval Office press conference. Flanked by Infantino and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the president issued a veiled threat to mayors and governors, telling them to “behave.” Trump also said he’d be happy to send in the National Guard to any city that might want their assistance with keeping soccer fans safe.
“If we think there’s going to be a sign of any trouble, I would ask Gianni to move that to a different city,” Trump told reporters. Trump had suggested moving the World Cup out of “unsafe” cities before.
Costly preparations for the 2026 World Cup, however, have been underway for years – the 16 host cities, which include three in Mexico and two in Canada, were announced in 2022.
The Bay Area Host Committee, which is covering the cost of putting on the six matches at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, is expected to shell out between $45 million and $50 million. A spokesperson for the organization did not respond to a request for comment about Trump’s remarks. FIFA also did not reply to a request for comment on its close alliance with Trump.
But U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, whose congressional district encompasses Santa Clara, said that moving any of the matches six months out would be the wrong decision.
“If Trump really followed through on moving any of the games, it would cause chaos and make the events less safe,” he said in a statement. “There has been years of planning and coordination going into these games, including security.”
Santa Clara County is one of nine counties hosting matches next year that overwhelmingly voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris – the two other U.S. counties, Miami-Dade County in Florida and Tarrant County in Texas, went for Trump.
That follows a trend that Johan Rewilak, an associate professor of sport management at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, has noticed. In his research, Rewilak has found a correlation between soccer’s popularity and Democratic voters.
“There’s a strong positive correlation between voting intentions and those who have an affinity with soccer,” he said. “So, typically those who are more Democratic in terms of the polling are those who are pro-soccer and support soccer more than those who are Republican-voting.”
However, Rewilak suggests that FIFA and Infantino, instead of solely catering to traditional soccer fans, might be targeting individuals not typically interested in the global sport. Trump, he said, is “very proactive using social media and whether you agree or not, he has a lot of influence.” Many of his voters “will be like ‘it’s OK for us to go watch soccer games, maybe this is for us. If our president is very pro-soccer, maybe we should be.’”
But Trump’s popularity has plummeted since he took office, with only 36% of Americans approving of his overall performance in November – a 4% drop from the month prior, according to pollster Gallup. That number is even lower among Democrats, with only 3% approving of him nationwide.
Josh Woods, a professor of sociology at West Virginia University who has studied the role of politics in sports, said in an email that “world soccer culture is incompatible with Trump’s nativism and nationalism.” But, Woods added, “given his fondness for the spotlight and high-profile sporting events, his early show of support for the tournament and warm ties with FIFA president Gianni Infantino may hold.”
Some Democratic lawmakers, like Rep. Sam Liccardo, aren’t concerned with Trump’s proximity – or influence – on FIFA officials like Infantino. In an email, Liccardo, who previously served as the mayor of San Jose, said that he met with FIFA during the site bidding process.
“I know that they understand that nowhere else in the U.S. offers a better venue, safer environment or more soccer-crazed fans than we do,” he said.
As for Trump’s comments on possibly moving matches, the congressmember doesn’t make much of them.
“Everyone in the South Bay is hustling to ensure we’re ready to host an epic World Cup,” he said. “Anything else is a silly distraction.”
FIFA has a history of working with controversial, unpopular or authoritarian governments. The 2018 and 2022 World Cups, awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively, were marred by controversy surrounding their assignment and the host governments’ authoritarian tendencies and human rights credentials. More recently, many questions surrounded FIFA’s confirmation of Saudi Arabia as the host for the 2034 tournament.Decades prior, a fascist government ruled Italy when it hosted the 1934 World Cup and a military junta presided over the World Cup in Argentina in 1978. In 1986, Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid was widely booed during the inauguration of the World Cup at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City due to his government’s dreadful response to the 1985 earthquake in the city. This year, Trump was also booed at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey during the FIFA Club World Cup final.
Rewilak believes people will attend U.S. games regardless of who is the face of the tournament. Case in point: FIFA has already sold millions of tickets for the 2026 World Cup. During the World Cup, the “common goal is supporting the United States national team, and the United States is very patriotic as a country,” Rewilak added.
But, Woods is not so sure: “Situating President Trump in a prominent role around the final draw for the FIFA World Cup would be like choosing Nancy Pelosi to drive the pace car for the Indianapolis 500, or making Bernie Sanders a guest star on a reboot of Duck Dynasty.”
Originally published at Gabriel Sama, Grace Hase