Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, has a piece where he argues the United States is about to not only be a pariah on the international stage politically but also on the international sports stage. He notes already the United States national anthem getting boos in Canada, and he expects that trend to continue.

It’s unlikely anyone’s going to be blacking out the American flag anytime soon; we are still (for now) the most powerful country in the world and remain the linchpin — and often founder of — key international organizations. Trump has also not (yet) invaded another country, and even if he did, nobody was banning the U.S. post-Iraq War. But America’s increasingly close association with a pariah country, combined with our relentless turn against historical allies, does come with an undeniable cost. It’s not just boos and sour looks from locals when we’re on vacation in Europe, either.

Trump and his “America first” crew won’t care about sports-bureaucrat scolding. But over the next three years, the two largest sporting events on earth are coming to the United States: The World Cup next year, and the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. While it might seem extreme to imagine the United States so isolated from the rest of the world that countries might consider not sending their athletes or teams to those events, well, think about how far the United States has fallen in the world’s estimation in just the first two months of Trump 2.0. Now imagine it a year from now, or a year and a half from now. If Russia were scheduled to host an Olympics right now — as it last did in 2014 in Sochi, which I attended, and which happened during Putin’s invasion of Crimea — do you think countries would actually go? Now think about where we’ll be this time next year, or 2026. Do you think Trump and company are going to work to rejoin the international community over the next 24 months? Or will they do the opposite? Even if boycotts aren’t on the table, it’s easy to imagine the World Cup and Olympics becoming political bargaining chips in all kinds of unseemly ways (a country could threaten to skip them unless Trump revokes tariffs, for instance). It’s also not hard to imagine the U.S. welcoming Russia back onto the global sports stage, as surreal as that would be. And forget about the mega-events: any time an American sports team travels abroad the next three years, they will likely be cast as villains.

This is the thing about isolating ourselves, about recklessly tearing down international alliances that have existed for more than 100 years: The rest of the world is, in fact, watching. Eventually, we will have to cross paths with them, whether you want to or not. The United States is turning away from the world. The world, however begrudgingly, is starting to do the same to the United States. Are we ready to be the bad guys? Like, really the bad guys? One thing is for certain: Pat McAfee better start getting used to boos.

I would not be surprised if the Olympics pulled out of Los Angeles. I would expect discussions to be happening right now regarding it. Making a move like that would be difficult, but I can easily see whole countries boycotting the Games, which would further make Trump look weak.

It is hard to believe the United States will be “cast as villains” for the entire Trump term. Then again, maybe not.