President Donald Trump has tied his own fortunes to the U.S. men's soccer team and "will surely go down" with them, i Paper political editor James Ball argued in an op-ed Tuesday, hours after Belgium knocked the United States out of the World Cup it is co-hosting.

The US lost 4-1 to Belgium in Seattle on Monday night, a defeat that eliminated the team and left all three host nations, the US, Canada and Mexico, out of the tournament. Belgium's official account trolled the result online with a photo of celebrating players captioned "Overturn this."

That taunt pointed to the controversy shadowing the match. Trump had phoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino days earlier to seek a review of the red-card suspension handed to US striker Folarin Balogun. FIFA then lifted the automatic one-game ban in a reversal that European soccer body UEFA said "crossed a red line," clearing Balogun to play. The US lost anyway.

Ball argued that Trump torched the goodwill the U.S. had built as tournament host and united fans worldwide in rooting against the American side, echoing how he has strained ties with European allies from Italy's Giorgia Meloni to Denmark and drawn anger abroad over the economic fallout of the Iran war. And, Ball wrote, Trump gained nothing for it.

Trump defended the call to reporters at the White House. "I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul," he said, insisting he never told FIFA what to do.

Ball said the usually outspoken Trump has suddenly gone quiet after the team's ouster.

"Donald Trump has never had any time for losers. However hard he works to ignore it, though, he cannot escape this one. He tied himself to the fate of the US team, and he will surely go down with them," Ball concluded.

Megyn Kelly used a Monday appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored to unload on Taylor Swift over her star-studded Madison Square Garden wedding, declaring the pop superstar hollow at her core and dismissing her guest list as inflated.

Swift, 36, married Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on July 3 at Madison Square Garden in a ceremony that drew hundreds of guests, with Adam Sandler officiating and reported performances from Paul McCartney and Stevie Nicks.

Kelly, 55, was unmoved by the fanfare.

"I really think she's empty inside," Kelly told Morgan.

"I think most people who seek fame at a very early age, like in their teens, are chasing after some sort of fullness that wasn't provided by their family of origin for whatever reason, and it never comes," Kelly continued. "It's a lifelong pursuit, because fame and money, adoration from strangers, does not fill that void, only you, God, and your immediate loved ones can."

Swift broke through at 16 with her self-titled debut album. Her parents, brother Austin, and much of the Kelce family were on hand for the ceremony.

Kelly then pivoted to the sheer size of the guest list, which reportedly ran near 1,000 people.

"Who has a thousand-person wedding?" she asked, before questioning how close the couple could really be to guests like Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. "Really? Those two are super close to Steven Spielberg? Bulls--t. I don't believe that for one second."

Spielberg had personally inducted Swift into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 11, praising her as a "singular" artist and phenomenon.

Kelly also refused to accept that Kelce's role opposite Sandler in 2025's Happy Gilmore 2 justified handing the comedian officiant duties.

Morgan offered only mild pushback, likening the roster to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. Kelly compared Swift's nuptials unfavorably to her own 300-person wedding, saying she had an "intimate connection" with every guest.

It is not the first time Kelly has trained her sights on Swift. She previously erupted on her podcast after Swift endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, warning: "You can kiss your sales to the Republican audience goodbye, Taylor." Swift's 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl went on to shatter the all-time first-week sales record.

What likely would have been an ordinary World Cup match between the United States and Belgium on Monday turned into a politically charged flashpoint after President Donald Trump meddled in last week's game, and following a lopsided win, the Belgium team sent Trump a message that left onlookers stunned.

Trump and his inner circle pressed FIFA officials last week to review a one-game suspension issued to one of the United States’ star players, a petition that ultimately proved successful after the penalty was overturned. However, Monday night’s match proved disastrous for the United States, which was defeated 4-1 and eliminated from progressing in the tournament.

Not long after Belgium’s fourth goal in the match, its national team – the Belgian Red Devils – issued a brutal two-word message directed squarely at Trump.

“Overturn this,” reads a social media post from the Belgian Red Devils’ X account, a post that was seen more than 5.5 million times as of 7 a.m. ET.

Despite the United States’ defeat, a number of American critics gave Belgium credit for the blistering rebuke.

“They cooked with this one. I’m sorry,” wrote Kevin Fredericks, a comedian and actor, in a social media post on X to his more than 463,000 followers.

Franklin Leonard, a California-based film producer, argued that the United States had “rightly” become a “laughingstock” amid Trump’s FIFA World Cup meddling, and Joe Denton, a popular UK-based streamer and content creator who’s amassed more than 100 million views, stated that “today, I feel Belgian.”

Journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan offered a more solemn take on the Belgian Red Devils’ rebuke of Trump.

“Thanks Donald Trump for allowing the rest of the world to mock our football team because you couldn’t stop ruining everything you stick your nose into,” Hasan wrote in a social media post on X.

And Cihan Çelik, a German physician, concurred with Hasan’s solemn assessment.

“Up until Trump's intervention, this World Cup was a success story for the USA, including in terms of sympathy for the US team,” Çelik wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 37,000 followers, according to an automatic translation from German.

“Now it ends with a sporting humiliation that is drawing mockery worldwide. Remarkable, how consistently Trump damages everything he touches.”