One day we were celebrating headlines like this: In the United States, Every World Cup Team Is a Home Team. And the next day, our beloved squad was soundly defeated by Belgium, and our nation was being mocked with disdain as the winning team ridiculed America with a clownish Trump dance and a post that read, Overturn This. As Jerry Brewer writes in The Athletic: The United States’ dream didn’t die. It was overturned. “The president didn’t rescue Folarin Balogun. He didn’t give the U.S. greater odds to win. He didn’t fix the tournament by correcting a mistake. He repossessed the World Cup. He made Balogun, whose class and character represented the entire squad, the face of a fix. He helped create the snooty American attitude that gave Belgium a motivational boost.” What can I say: Football is life. And this is life with Trump. The whole charade was “in many ways, yet another crystallisation of America’s philosophy under Trump, where a rules-based international order can be swept aside when it is deemed to be in the interests of the U.S. One day, it may be climate change co-operation, or it could be economic tariffs on long-standing partners. On another day, it may be withdrawing from the World Health Organization, or threatening to seize Greenland or making Canada the 51st state.” And Trump’s MAGA-red card insertion into the World Cup is a pitch perfect metaphor for the kick-off of today’s NATO meetings, where Trump will further antagonize allies, destroy America’s leadership role, and provide yet another reminder that the election of 2024 was the own goal of the century.
