After making news at the Olympics, politics will dominate the World Cup

Can you blame anyone at NBC and the US Olympic Committee that may be breathing a sigh of relief after Milan? Sure, it was one of our best showings ever at the Winter Olympics, but between media members asking every American athlete about ICE, our president openly rooting against our teams, and Fox News ready to create content out of everything, I can see how anyone involved in an official capacity would be ready for it all to be over.

Now, the eyes and hearts of international sports fans turn to the World Cup. What is in store for that tournament when it kicks off in June? I cannot tell you how things will play out on the pitch, but some of what will happen in and around the games seems pretty obvious to me.

Avoiding politics or demanding that everyone involved “stay in their lane” will be a fool’s errand. Donald Trump has already wrapped himself around this tournament, and FIFA has been more than happy to play along. 

This is the biggest tournament in the world. I don’t think there will be a real dent in the ratings, but the 2026 World Cup is inextricably linked to an historically unpopular president, both at home and abroad. That is going to be talked about. 

We already know Trump will be at the World Cup Final in LA. Surely that won’t be the only game he attends. Even if Fox is more friendly than ESPN was during the US Open, there will be boos when he is shown on the stadium jumbotrons and those boos will become a story.

There is a separation of church and state when it comes to Fox Sports and Fox News (but don’t tell Alexi Lalas – more on that coming). Fox News was the loudest voice in damning the USWNT and mocking their elimination from the 2023 World Cup, which was airing on Fox and FS1. The same is true of the NFL. No matter how much Fox paid to broadcast half of the league’s Sunday slate, Fox News has spent the better part of the last ten years insisting that the league is just too woke for their audience now.

The amount of money Fox poured into World Cup rights is irrelevant. Trump getting booed is culture war red meat. If it happens at the World Cup, Fox News will pounce. Even if it only happens once, it is all the network will talk about for the duration of the tournament.

Our country will no doubt be put under a microscope because of ICE. There are armed, untrained masked goons in the streets that cannot seem to do anything right. I wouldn’t blame international visitors for wondering if it’s safe to come here and watch their team. 

I wouldn’t blame anyone that has the same concerns about having to go to Guadalajara to see their team play after watching the violence inflicted across Western Mexico by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in recent days. That city is currently scheduled to host four matches, including one featuring the Mexican national team.

What will be the status of our standoff with Iran by the time June rolls around? They are a regular presence at the World Cup, having made five of the previous seven tournaments, and are already qualified for the 2026 tournament. The Iranians will play matches in Seattle and Los Angeles. How will they be greeted? How will their fans be treated?

Adding to all the tension is the lack of a broadcasting statesman. There will be no sign off like Mike Tirico’s plea for unity after the gold medal game in the Olympic hockey tournament. 

Instead, the World Cup’s signature broadcast presence will be the aforementioned Lalas, who can always be counted on to echo the dumbest conservative critiques of the country and seems to genuinely hate US Soccer. If the tournament presents a chance for him to prove his conservative bona fides by lambasting the event, he will take it.

Line up the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics, and the World Cup and I am picking the World Cup 100 times out of 100. I think it’s an incredibly fun event, even just experiencing it on television. I don’t think the 2026 tournament will be an exception.

Soccer (RESIST!) fans hate it when we casuals invade their space and talk about the sport with a level of confidence we have not earned. I get it. I feel the same way when I hear Stephen A. Smith and Chris Russo talking about college football. 

But it isn’t hard to see what is coming. Those die hard fans are going to be really unhappy this summer. The culture is too divided right now for anyone to just watch and enjoy the games. You can scream “stick to sports” and “shut up and dribble” all you want, but the conditions are too perfect for an international sporting event played on American soil to not carry deeper meaning for the culture warriors.

I guess the good news is that with the USA at 65/1, it’s really unlikely that taxpayers will have to foot the bill for Kash Patel to attend another locker room championship celebration.