If Gianni Infantino is unlikely to now tell us how he feels before this World Cup, we can see how he is when he’s in Donald Trump’s presence.The Fifa president looks excited. The hand is often extended from the heart, in that classic gesture of the evangelising Blair-like statesman. Trump smiles on, two leaders together. Those who have been close to such meetings say it is a mix of “fawning and adoration” from Infantino, which is also why there is increasing disquiet among numerous senior Fifa figures. They don’t like how this has been going.The relationship is one of a few areas where even someone as brazen as Infantino might now be caught in a bind.Trump weighs over this entire World Cup. One ad hoc decision can cause chaos. One impulsive social media post can cause commotion.(PA)Infantino is ironically dependent on how Trump feels every morning.It’s an unprecedented political relationship for a World Cup, as they form the duo on which the tournament’s very running depends.That plays into one frequent Fifa explanation for Infantino’s obsequiousness, as there is an insistence that Trump does require constant “management”.The persistent criticism over two years has nevertheless been that the Fifa president has moved far beyond mere politicking. A widespread belief is that he actually admires Trump. The Independent has written before how Fifa employees know when Infantino is back from meeting the US president, because he speaks like him.The Fifa Peace Prize is similarly described as an idea that came straight from the president’s office, with the embarrassment and shame everyone else felt only amplified with every subsequent geopolitical intervention: the operation in Venezuela, threatening to invade Greenland and - above all - the bombing of Iran.Such developments have angered senior Fifa figures in a way that didn’t previously seem imaginable under this regime.Infantino’s big gambit is nevertheless to follow the example of Qatar and plough on until the World Cup starts. At that point, the football takes over, and he’s back in his safe space. This, after all, is the first World Cup of his Fifa presidency that is entirely “his”. Infantino inherited Russia and Qatar, but oversaw the bidding process for 2026 back in 2018, its remarkable expansion and now - finally - its staging.Except, 2026 might offer another illustration of how he has pushed all of this too far.Gianni Infantino is said to have used his role as Fifa president to launch himself into the geopolitical sphere (Reuters)Far from a safe space, Infantino could be entering an unusual period of “high scrutiny”. The Democrats are watching. It’s understood they feel the World Cup may represent a potential point of vulnerability for Trump, due to that proximity,The tournament has already been cast as an opportunity to project MAGA politics, after all.Last week’s announcement that the attorney generals of New York and New Jersey have subpoenaed Fifa as part of an investigation into ticket practices is being viewed in this context. Similarly, most of the complications have come in Democrat states.As one football executive put it, “welcome to America”. This is after all a deeply politically divided country, and Infantino is not exactly straddling that gap. A Democrat-leaning entity like US Soccer have been completely sidelined.Suddenly, then, Infantino has made Fifa vulnerable.And for what?Donald Trump said he ‘wouldn’t pay’ four figures to watch the USA-Paraguay game, the host nation’s first at the World Cup (AFP/Getty)For all of Infantino’s eagerness, the Trump administration haven’t exactly given Fifa much help. “The ass-kissing has got us nowhere,” as one director says.Trump even humiliated Infantino on ticket prices, blankly saying he wouldn’t pay four figures.Fifa have otherwise had no support on visas, transportation, wider infrastructure or Iran.The conflict has instead formed another World Cup issue to straddle.Infantino has naturally been desperate for Iran to play, both to avoid the ultimate logistical chaos and his own venal reasons about being able to say “football unites the world”.And yet virtually every Trump entreaty on this has made the issue more complex. The US president even publicly changed his mind on it in the space of one day. There have been suggestions that Infantino’s approach on Iran has aggravated some of the Trump circle. Ultimately, they don’t need a public figure like this causing interference.Such an attitude was indicated in Trump’s March comment that he “really didn’t care” if Iran played.And while the US president naturally tolerates anyone who panders to him - at least temporarily - Melania Trump isn’t said to be so enamoured with Infantino.The Fifa president has been around the first family a lot. One description is that he’s “too busy”.It’s the sort of pushback Infantino doesn’t encounter any more, and that due to another consequence of how intertwined he is with the US president. The Trumpification of Fifa is continuing full pace.Looming over everything, there’s the cult of personality. Institutional checks and balances have been eroded. An obsession with money now pervades, most visible in the great rip-off this World Cup represents. The president has similarly been involved in a number of controversies but, as one director says, “everything can be moved on with a social media post”. A similar disdain for the media exists, even if Infantino shows that by barely speaking to press, rather than just insulting them.As much of a parody as all this looks, the seriousness should not be underestimated.You only have to look at Infantino’s attempts to get the heads of Palestinian and Israeli football to shake hands at April’s Fifa Congress in Vancouver. It is arguably the worst thing he’s done, due to the brazen insensitivity of self-indulgently seeking to use a conflict for his own venal photo opportunity, out of vapid personal mission statements like football healing the world. The very intent betrayed a lack of concern for those involved.Many association representatives in the room were horrified, but no one said it publicly - which is precisely how these things happen. It smacked of a man who takes on no proper advice.And this, remember, is some random lawyer who has somehow risen to the position where he can sell off chunks of the world game.It’s remarkable to think now that Infantino came to power on the promise of reform. After Sepp Blatter resigned in disgrace, the confederations came together to propose a new governance model that would limit presidential power. Infantino was one of Uefa’s two delegates, having been expected at that point to be Michel Platini’s general secretary at Fifa.The long road from the US state investigations into Fifa, led by attorney general Loretta Lynch, changed all that.Infantino rose to power, and he’s since acted in a way that is a complete contrast to the suggested reform package he was instrumental in drawing up.Having used the role to launch himself into the geopolitical sphere, the talk is of how he almost wants to be a mogul and founder as well as a leader… which sounds a bit like Trump.One senior football figure describes “the ruse of reform”.“They talk about how Fifa have changed, but then all you can see is a model with no checks and balances where no one publicly discusses anything, other than to laud the emperor.”There’s even a telling line in the new book about Infantino, ‘Forward - The Revolution of Football’.Written by Alessandro Alciato, it talks of how “money used to change hands under the table. Since 2016, however, it has moved in the open for all to see”.And so the World Cup has still been sold off to states like Saudi Arabia, albeit without the need for anything seen in the bids for Russia and Qatar.Gianni Infantino has already confirmed that he will be standing for re-election in 2027, having been re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023 (Getty)Such a book is of course an extension of the ongoing “celebrations” for Infantino’s 10th anniversary as president, that naturally included a video full of people congratulating him.One was Lynch.So much has come full circle.Now, Fifa declined to comment on the New York/New Jersey investigations.Infantino will instead try to keep pandering to Trump. Trump may yet say something that turns the whole World Cup on its head.The rest of the world is left wondering how to feel.