President Donald Trump hasn’t attended a World Cup 2026 match yet, despite the U.S. being one of three host countries this year.
Andrew Giuliani — son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the chief of Trump’s World Cup task force — sought to explain the president’s absence so far.
Giuliani told The Telegraph the president hasn’t attended a game yet because he wants to “leave people watching.”
“I know he’s got a couple of international trips that he has planned as well as Independence Day, so the only thing I’ll tell you about my boss—and I’ve known him for, heck, 30 years, and he’s kind of like an uncle figure to me—he likes a good cliffhanger, right?” he told the paper.
He said Trump “likes to leave people watching, so all I can tell you is ‘keep tuned in’, and I’m excited to see what the next steps are.”
That suggests that Trump may, at some point, attend a match.
Even if Trump wanted to solely attend matches featuring the U.S. men’s team, he’s had two opportunities already. The U.S. won its opening match against Paraguay and then went on to beat Australia in the second.
While obviously a busy man, Trump has managed to carve out time to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals in New York — the only game the New York Knicks lost — and to watch UFC 250, which took place on the White House lawn.
Trump reportedly called the team earlier this week to tell them “I think you’ve got a really good chance of going all the way,” according to The Athletic.
Perhaps his reception at the Knicks game has persuaded him to avoid venues filled with likely hostile crowds. During his visit to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks, Trump was met with boos from the crowd. After the Knicks lost, fans filmed themselves burning sage outside the arena ahead of Game 4 to purge what they said was the bad energy the president had brought.
While the World Cup crowds may not respond well to Trump’s presence, he’s got at least one fan very high up the World Cup food chain; FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
The Swiss-born World Cup chief has been fairly open in his efforts to win Trump over, even going so far as to create a FIFA World Peace prize just to give to the president after he was denied the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.
Infantino has not commented publicly about the president seemingly snubbing one of the world’s greatest sporting events.
An unnamed source told The Telegraph that Trump would likely only make an appearance if the U.S. team made it to the semifinals.
“The president is preoccupied with the U.S.’s July 4 celebrations. The World Cup just isn’t on his radar at the moment,” the source said. “He will give the trophy at the final, but I don’t think we will see him before then. It’s possible he’ll go to a semi-final, but only if the U.S. gets that far.”
Neither of Trump’s fellow host-nation leaders — Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum — attended their national teams’ opening matches either. Carney did attend the Canadian team’s second match against Qatar.
Sheinbaum made clear before the World Cup that she would not attend, and instead donated her ticket to a young Indigenous woman who won a contest for the chance to attend a match.
“As president, it’s better that I give my place to someone who couldn’t have gone,” she said during a news conference.
While Trump hasn’t attended a game yet, other members of his administration have.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy have all attended matches.
Democrats have also made appearances, including California Governor Gavin Newsom — who attended the U.S. opener — and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who attended a match between Morocco and Brazil.
