The Patriot Post® · Trump Flexes American Muscle at World Cup

I can practically hear the lefties wailing: He’s ruined our beloved football!

The “he” in this case is, of course, Donald Trump; the “football” is what we red-blooded Americans rightly call soccer; and the unforgivable offense is the First Sports Fan’s use of a personal friendship to right a grievous wrong — namely, the ridiculous red card that the U.S. Men’s National Team’s leading scorer, Folarin “Flo” Balogun, picked up last week against Bosnia-Herzegovina, which caused him to be ejected from that game, which the U.S. won 2-0, in addition to being suspended from the Americans’ next game, a round-of-16 elimination game against Belgium.

“If you look at the foul,” said Balogun’s teammate, Christian Pulisic, “it was just zero intent at all. I felt like there was much worse ones that went on this tournament.” Lionel Messi [cough, cough], looking at you.

Enter the American president. As the Appropriated Press reports, “FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the round of 16 match. … Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the game asking FIFA review the red card, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.”

The incessant flopping is without a doubt the worst part of international soccer. But there are also a lot of mystifyingly stupid rules, and the red card is one of them. For example, imagine the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson inadvertently tripped a San Antonio Spurs player during the NBA Finals and was kicked out of that game and the next. Imagine if Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker had gotten his feet tangled up with a defensive back in this year’s NFC Championship Game and had been suspended from the Super Bowl. Or imagine if Jack Hughes had taken a tripping penalty during the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team’s semifinal game against Slovakia and got thrown out for that game and the gold medal game against Canada. No Jack Hughes, no Golden Goal for the United States. Heck, soccer needs reform almost as badly as the Democrat Party needs reform.

As for the Balogun reinstatement, it puts Democrats and lefties in a heckuva pickle. Why? Because they tend to love international soccer despite — or is it because of? — America’s perennial absence among the world’s elite men’s teams. But now we have a squad on the verge of advancing further into the World Cup than any American team since 2002. On Trump’s watch. With Trump having played a part in it. The horror.

Yesterday, Trump lent further cause for cognitive dissonance by responding briefly to FIFA’s ruling via Truth Social without taking any personal credit for the decision: “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Short, sweet, and thoroughly presidential.

Balogun and his teammates aren’t out of the woods yet, though, as the Belgians are squealing like stuck pigs and are appealing the ruling. Belgium, which borders France and clearly harbors some spillover enmity toward the United States, blasted FIFA as having “crossed a red line.” Yesterday, the team’s coach, Rudi Garcia, couldn’t wipe the sneer off his face when he blurted out, “I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe.”

The only fools here are the Belgian officials who seem afraid to play the U.S. team at full strength. After all, this isn’t the first time FIFA has shown flexibility to accommodate one of its star players. As The New York Times reports, “Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world’s most famous players, was cleared to play at the start of this year’s World Cup when under regular rules he should have missed the first two games because of a red card before the tournament began.”

Trump’s friendship with Infantino is well documented, as the latter awarded the former the FIFA Peace Prize in December at the team-draw event for the 2026 World Cup. And just imagine — work with me here — if Joe Biden or Barack Obama had intervened in such a situation. Had either of them done so, Democrats and their Leftmedia fellow travelers would be hailing their president’s extraordinary diplomacy and statesmanship. But with Trump, it’s all gnashing of teeth and rending of Brasil and Mexico jerseys.

In the end, Trump saw fit to use his considerable juice to make things right. The overturn is good for Team USA, good for the growth of the sport, and good for the sense of sanity in soccer.

So what’s not to like? Unless you’re from Belgium?