It took a while, but U.S. President Donald Trump was never going to let the 2026 World Cup staged largely on home soil go by without his involvement.After failing to attend the first 102 fixtures staged this summer across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Trump is set to feature heavily at Sunday’s final. To make sure his presence was felt before Spain and Argentina duke it out in the smoke of New Jersey, the President staged a surreal press conference on Friday evening.Stood beside the glistening World Cup trophy and behind the presidential seal, Trump held court, meandering between tactical analysis of the knockout stage to appraisals of opera singers. Billionaires were commanded to stand up like naughty children in front of the rest of the class and plans for a future cross-continental World Cup were joked about.FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who squirmed through much of Trump’s diatribe at his left elbow, stole the first few minutes of everyone’s attention by calling the 2026 World Cup “the greatest human, social and culture event that mankind has ever witnessed.” The 16 minutes which followed were some of the strangest.Criticism of Thomas Tuchel’s England TacticsThomas Tuchel became just the fourth manager to ever lead England into a men’s World Cup semifinal. | Justin Setterfield/Getty Images“What do I know about soccer?” Trump repeated during his monologue. It appeared that he knew enough to join in with pile-on England manager Thomas Tuchel has suffered through in the aftermath of his side’s limp semifinal defeat to Argentina.Like so many critics, Trump thought the Three Lions took a destructively defensive approach after taking a 1–0 lead. Intriguingly, the President cited the positioning of Harry Kane as a particular issue.“You have a great player in England who I play golf with. You know that, right? Harry, who’s been fantastic. I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive player,” Trump argued.“They took the lead, and they took their best player, and they put him on defense. Now, we got to be a little offensive, right? “But no, I’m not going to call it. Look, what do I know about coaching? But that was a little unusual.”Tuchel has staunchly defended his decisions, arguing—with some justification—that he was simply trying to bolster the defensive stance his players had already dropped into. When pushed specifically on Kane’s position, the German coach argued: “That’s what you do if [you] defend in a block. That’s what team spirit and mentality is translated to. If we are pushed back in a deep block then Harry defends in a deep block.”Lionel Messi AdorationLionel Messi (left) visited the White House for the first time and received praise from President Donald Trump back in March. | ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty ImagesIn a further appraisal of that chaotic England-Argentina semifinal, Trump lauded Lionel Messi’s role in creating the winning goal. “I watched that pass that Messi made,” he began. “Not knowing as much as the people in this room, I know about sports, and I know a little bit about soccer. But I watched Messi, and he was well-guarded, right? Well-guarded. “And all of a sudden, he’s standing on the right. Do you understand what I’m talking about? I don’t know if anybody... I just noticed it. Nobody talked about it. I just noticed it. I said, ‘He’s so well-guarded by a great player.’ And then he moved to the right, and the other player was just standing there. “And he had plenty of time. He kicked it. It was within, I would say, a quarter of an inch of being perfect. And that was the end of the game. It was brilliant. And he’s a great guy.”Messi did indeed shift to the right wing as England hunkered in a deeper and deeper block, reprising the position from which he had so much success in orchestrating Argentina’s comeback against Egypt in the round of 16.Cristiano Ronaldo Gets His ShoutoutAfter name-checking Kane and Messi, Trump felt compelled to hail one of the few soccer players he has welcomed into the Oval Office, Cristiano Ronaldo.“These great players, they seem to do that over and over again,” the President noted. “They’re just born with something extra. Ronaldo is one of them. I got to know him over the years and he’s a great guy.”Unlike Kane and Messi, Ronaldo’s tournament with Portugal was brought to an abrupt conclusion in the round of 16. The 41-year-old veteran did get the first World Cup knockout goal of his career—and became the first player in the competition’s history to score in six different editions—but bowed out of his final appearance in tears.Further Insight Into Folarin Balogun DebacleFolarin Balogun could not generate much offensively on Monday night. | Sarah Stier/FIFA/Getty ImagesTrump’s most noteworthy contribution to the tournament—before this bizarre speech, perhaps—was the very prominent role he played in ensuring that U.S. striker Folarin Balogun would be allowed to play in the round of 16 tie against Belgium despite getting sent off in the previous fixture. The President did not waste an opportunity to bring the incident up again.“This has been a tournament like no other,” he claimed. “Filled with fierce competition. Unforgettable moments. Like, probably the most unforgettable is when they gave that gentleman... Is it a red card? And I was forced to call Gianni and just make a recommendation. “I said, ‘Gianni, I’d like to make a recommendation. Let the guy in the game.’” While Infantino’s face contorted in distress alongside him, Trump quickly added, “No, I didn’t say that. I said, ‘I’d like to wage a complaint.’” “I had no idea what was going to happen,” he continued. “But it was so much better the way it worked out because there’s no controversy. They won the game, and our team had all of its players.” However, despite Trump’s claim, there was plenty of controversy about the whole affair. A World Cup red card brings an automatic one-game ban which is not the subject of any appeals process. The fact that a head of state was able to intervene in any way calls into question the legitimacy of the entire tournament. Trump inadvertently added to the cloud looming over this moment by framing Infantino as the person who made the final decision to hand Balogun a reprieve—something FIFA’s president had fiercely denied, instead insisting that it was the decision of the independent disciplinary panel.“You made another great decision, if you think about that,” Trump claimed, turning to Infantino and slapping him on the arm. “No, you’ll never get credit. You’ll never get credit for this. Think of it, if he didn’t allow him, and then they could say, 'We would have won the game if we had our best players.’ So Gianni made yet another of his many good decisions.”More World Cups in the U.S.The World Cup trophy is up for grabs on Sunday. | Jordan Bank/FIFA/Getty ImagesTrump began and concluded his sermon by lauding the talents of opera singer Christopher Macchio, who he repeatedly compared to Luciano Pavarotti. But before that odd bookend, the U.S. President cast his mind forward to a future World Cup in the States.“I’m really working these people hard because they really call the shots. They tell Gianni exactly what to do,” Trump chortled, looking at the FIFA officials perched in the front row. “I say, what we should do is you should choose the United States of America again. This time we’ll leave Mexico and Canada out.”“I was very nice to get them in,” Trump added above the guffaws from the crowd, before continuing: “You choose us. But you pick somebody else for the next one. And that will take some of the anger, hatred and steam out of everyone.”The President appeared to be unaware that the 2030 and 2034 World Cup hosts have already been assigned.“Gianni also had another idea,” Trump carried on, inspiring a squint of confusion from Infantino. “He said we could do it China and the United States for the next time. We do China, United States. So you have a nice short flight in between games. The players would love that.”READ THE LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FCAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow