'We hate you': Concerns grow that Trump will ruin the World Cup

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump during the FIFA World Cup draw, December 5, 2025. REUTERS/Mandel Ngan

The United States enjoyed a major victory when Philadelphia was chosen as a 2026 FIFA World Cup City. Soccer fans from all over the world will be visiting Philly for a series of matches in June and July, which coincide with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence — the document that, in Philly on July 4, 1776, officially marked the United States' separation from Great Britain.

But British journalist Simon Kuper, author of the book "World Cup Fever," fears that U.S. President Donald Trump's policies will ruin 2026's World Cup. And he lays out his concerns in a biting op-ed published by the New York Times on March 2.

"I've been to the last nine men's soccer World Cups," Kuper writes, "and the dominant mood is almost always international friendship…. That is not the spirit of the United States under the Trump Administration, primary host of this summer's tournament in North America. Its basic message to foreigners seems to be: 'We hate you.' The feeling is mutual. Many of the world's soccer fans are dreading a tournament in a country that a growing number of foreigners are afraid even to visit. Happily, the Democratic cities that are hosting almost all games in the United States can seize the opportunity to show the world an alternative, a better, America."

Kuper laments that he has "never known Europeans — or a world" to be "as anti-American as they are today."

"International opinions of the country have cratered since President Trump returned to office, and in Europe have hit record lows, according to the pollster YouGov," Kuper observes. "Mr. Trump is, after all, not only an American problem, but a global one: just look at his bombings, tariff bluster, threats to annex Greenland and Canada and his deadly slashing of global humanitarian aid. From the outside, it can feel like once-friendly America is nothing but MAGA…. The World Cup is the only time I personally plan to set foot in the country during the Trump administration."

Kuper continues, "Many visitors worry about being deported, or even locked up, based on the whims of a border official. Accounts of weekslong detentions of apparently blameless visitors have circulated widely, worsening the 'Trump slump' in tourism…. But boycotts of World Cups almost never happen, and probably shouldn't. Rather than scrapping the World Cup, we should scrap Mr. Trump from it."

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