President Donald Trump reportedly intervened in the FIFA World Cup on behalf of Team USA in a way that had political analysts and sports fans holding their sides.
Team USA is scheduled to play in a high-stakes match against Belgium on Monday night, one where the Americans could advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002. Initially, it appeared that the U.S. would be without one of its stars, Folarin Balogun, after he received a red card in the team's last match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Red cards carry an automatic one-game suspension.
On Sunday, Ben Jacobs, senior football correspondent for GiveMeSport, reported that FIFA decided to overturn Balogun's suspension after the Trump White House "made a direct call" to FIFA and asked president Gianni Infantino to look at the case.
Yes, that's the same Infantino who previously awarded Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025 for "promoting a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine."
After it was announced that Balogun would be allowed to play on Sunday, Trump thanked FIFA for "doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice" in a post on Truth Social.
Onlookers reacted to the report on social media, with some pointing out a striking irony in the story.
"Possible corruption and cheating aside, hilarious that the Trump administration [was] allegedly pushing hard to reinstate a player who is a literal birthright citizen," Mehdi Hasan, founder of Zeteo News, posted on X. "His pregnant mother gave birth to him on a visit because the airline wouldn’t let her board her return flight."
"Under FIFA rules, the US should now be suspended from competition. Of course, this won't happen," Alonso Gurmendi, a fellow in human rights at LSE Sociology, wrote in a social media post on X.
"Good to see Trump protecting birthright citizenship," Matthew Ygelsias, a columnist for The New York Times, posted on X.
"FIFA has explicit statutes preventing political or government interference. This should be a resigning matter for a repeatedly disgraced FIFA President," Tim Stillman, a football writer for ArseBlog.com, posted on X.
"As a fan, I am obviously overjoyed that Balogun will get to play and that this injustice was corrected," Tommy Vietor, co-host of "Pod Save America," posted on X. "But man, does this look awful for FIFA, and it will make the rest of the world feel like the tournament was rigged."
