The US president has an aptitude for elbowing himself into the spotlight, and next year he’ll make sure he has the world’s attention
W
hen Donald Trump remained on stage, grinning in the sun as Chelsea lifted the Club World Cup trophy last month, it was all too easy to treat the incident as a one-off mistake. A moment that said plenty about Trump’s ego, sure. But ultimately, only a moment.
Nope. It’s reality. Inescapable. Donald Trump will be everywhere Fifa is in the US, including at the 2026 World Cup – due to start in about 10 months, when Canada and Mexico will co-host.
If this much wasn’t clear already after that moment at MetLife Stadium and all the other times Trump or his agenda have affected World Cup affairs, it may have become so after Friday’s Oval Office appearance with Fifa president Gianni Infantino – the eighth reported meeting between the pair since January, and the fifth to take place in public at the White House.
