Trump Gets Instant Karma with World Cup in Crisis Mode

Summary

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The MeidasTouch Podcast: Trump Gets Instant Karma with World Cup in Crisis Mode

Date: June 10, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Main Theme:
This episode dives deep into the crises plaguing the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S. under the Trump administration, focusing on xenophobic visa restrictions, ticket sale collapses, Trump’s business dealings, fan and team backlash, and the broader implications of authoritarian politics on American democracy and global sport.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. World Cup Organizational Chaos & Fallout

• Massive Ticket Surplus and Hotel Cancellations ([03:11])
  • 180,000 World Cup tickets remain on resale markets.
  • Up to 75% of hotel bookings in host cities like Kansas City are being canceled due to lack of demand.
  • “If you can’t sell out the USA- Paraguay game, there’s something seriously wrong.”
    — Political Commentator ([11:11])
• Travel Restrictions and Xenophobia
  • Heinous visa restrictions against referees, team officials, and fans from African and Middle Eastern countries (especially Somalia, Iran, Senegal, and Uzbekistan).
  • Notable case: Somali referee Omar Aran, renowned across Africa, was denied entry into the U.S.
  • Iranian team ticket allocation revoked: Iran barred from distributing fan tickets, allegedly over U.S. sanctions, with Trump appointees insinuating links to terrorism.
  • Senegalese and Uzbek teams: Subjected to invasive searches at arrival.

2. Administration Statements — “Security” as a Pretext

• Andrew Giuliani's Rationalizations ([06:19])
  • Head of U.S. FIFA operations (Rudy Giuliani’s son), parrots official line on bans:

    “It was for very good reason. I support that decision. … We want to avoid bad actors.”
    — Andrew Giuliani, justifying the ban on the Somali referee ([06:19])

  • Acknowledges officials and press are being denied entry, while insisting “no players, no coaches have been denied” ([07:27]).
  • Regarding Iran:

    “There are some Iranian officials that are not coming in again for very good reason. Can’t get into the particulars…”
    — Andrew Giuliani ([08:18])

  • Coaches, players, and teams forced to base operations outside the U.S. (e.g., Iran in Tijuana).

3. Global Perception & Historical Comparison ([09:39])

• U.S. treatment of World Cup visitors contrasts sharply with Mexico’s welcoming approach.
• “The Trump regime is like next level repressive and authoritarian.”
  — Political Commentator ([06:53])
• Commentators note that Russia and Qatar, both controversial hosts, did not enact such broad bans on officials or fans.

4. Team and Fan Reactions — Boycotts & Outrage

• Senegalese players consider boycotting in solidarity with Somalia ([11:11]).
• FIFA’s reputation as an inclusive, global organization is in crisis.
• International analyst:

  “In the history of the World Cup, I’m not aware of anything like this happening… It’s a huge sporting disadvantage for one of the teams not to have any fans in there. … This is one of the world's best referees coming to the World Cup. And they said, ‘no, you can’t come in’. It’s just, it’s head-shaking, really.”
  — FIFA/World Cup Analyst ([14:19])

5. Trump’s Business Gains from FIFA ([15:48])

• FIFA leases an essentially unused office in Trump Tower, funneling rent to the Trump Organization.
• Gianni Infantino, FIFA head, is reported to continuously court Trump, trading in overt flattery and luxury gifts to maintain the relationship.
• Growing perception that Trump and Infantino profit, while fans, cities, and the sport itself suffer.
• Corruption Allegations:
  • “A decade ago, soccer executives were terrified to travel to the United States, fearing they’d be arrested for corruption. Now, Mr. Infantino is an Oval Office regular. Corruption marries corruption.”
    — Political Commentator ([15:48])
  • Ticket prices under investigation for alleged gouging; host cities face deficits and are demanding FIFA cover damages.

6. Public Policy Disaster — Health, Economy, and Hypocrisy ([11:11], [15:48])

• Trump administration blames external entities (Europe/WHO) for Ebola risks, ignoring its own exit from the World Health Organization and funding cuts for public health.
• “Everything Trump touches dies. And I think this is a perfect example of it right here.”
  — Political Commentator ([15:48])
• Host cities’ economies are worse off than if they hadn’t hosted, due to high security, surging travel costs, and anti-immigrant rhetoric reducing tourism.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Xenophobia:
  • “Donald Trump and the Trump regime are a bunch of racists who hate Somalians. They wouldn’t let the Somalian referee into the country.”
    — Political Commentator ([03:11])
• On Security Excuses:
  • “We’re striking that balance between making sure any bad actors … will not get access to the United States of America.”
    — Andrew Giuliani ([07:27])
• On FIFA’s Compliance:
  • “FIFA have just said, nothing to do with us. That’s all down to the government. I mean, it’s extraordinary.”
    — FIFA/World Cup Analyst ([14:19])
• On Economic Damage:
  • “The cities are getting crushed. And Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump are like, we’re gonna make you so rich. And now the cities are suffering… demand is down year over year because no one wants to travel to the United States with ICE and Border Patrol threatening everybody.”
    — Political Commentator ([15:48])

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Key Timestamps

• 03:11 — Opening breakdown of World Cup failures: ticket, hotel, and visa crises
• 06:19 — Andrew Giuliani defends travel bans on officials/referees
• 07:27 — Justification for denying press/officials entry
• 08:18 — Giuliani on Iran: travel, sanctions, and “security”
• 09:39 — U.S. vs. Mexico: contrasting hospitality for World Cup teams
• 11:11 — Senegal considers World Cup boycott; ticket sales crisis deepens
• 14:19 — Analyst on historic nature of Iran/Somalia bans, FIFA’s abdication
• 15:48 — Trump profiting from empty FIFA office, host cities losing money, ticket price gouging

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Summary

The Meiselas brothers thoroughly unmask how the Trump administration’s immigration and foreign policy—marked by racism and authoritarianism—have marred the 2026 World Cup. Visa bans on referees, team officials, and fans from Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia have led to outrage and possible boycotts, especially from affected teams like Senegal. FIFA, under Gianni Infantino, is complicit—going as far as leasing unused Trump Tower office space, funneling cash to the ex-president.

Host cities are underperforming economically, contrary to FIFA/Trump promises. Fans are alienated by both sky-high prices and chilling rhetoric from U.S. officials, while the administration deflects blame to Europe, WHO, and previous U.S. leaders. The episode is a scathing indictment of how political corruption, race-based policies, and crony capitalism can sabotage both democracy and global sport, leaving American cities, world football, and ordinary fans as the losers.

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Transcript

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[Political Commentator]

turned the World cup into an absolute disaster when it comes to ticket sales. FIFA is now facing empty seats as 180,000 World cup tickets hit the resale market. Additionally, FIFA booked tens of thousands of hotel rooms in cities hosting games like Kansas City, where we're seeing cancellations of up to 75%. Like in Kansas City where the demand is not there. We've seen the World cup working with Donald Trump engage in heinous visa restrictions against referees and fans and team officials. We've been talking about how the Somalian referee was Omar Aran, who's like the top African referee. He was banned from the United States. He flew into the US and he was turned away. I mean, we're talking about like a world renowned referee simply because he's from Somalia. And Donald Trump and the Trump regime are a bunch of racists who hate Somalians. They wouldn't let the Somalian referee into the country. Also in the past 24 hours, we learned that the Trump regime revoked the ticket allocation for the Iranian team, saying that Iran is not allowed to have any tickets to give out to their fans because that would be a violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. And Iran might utilize the tickets to promote terrorism inside the United States. You've seen how the Trump regime treated the Senegalese, the team from Senegal when they arrived, I mean, the Trump regime gave them basically cavity searches and like read them the riot act and just treated them like absolute crap. When it came to the Uzbekistan team when they showed up, we're talking about World cup winning coaches and players and world class players, formerly Italy captain, being searched like they're suspected drug mules simply because they're from Uzbekistan. Now, in the past 24 hours, you had Andrew Giuliani, who is now, he has been heading all FIFA operations in the United States. He's Rudy Giuliani's kid. He spoke with the Atlantic Castle, sorry, the Atlantic Council, and they were asking him about the decision to deny the Somali referee Omar Ar Tan entry for the United States to be a referee here. And he goes, it was for very good reason. We want to avoid bad actors. Basically implying that Omar Arcan is like a terrorist. That's, I mean, that's the level of racism we're dealing with here. Here. Play this clip. There's a lot of talk abroad about how the United States blocking the entry of referees from Africa, Iranian coaching staff, national team fans, what are the actual reasons for these measures and is it a bureaucratic error?

[Andrew Giuliani]

Sure. We'll take these one by one. So there's been one referee who has not been admitted, and I can't go into the details. What I can tell you, high level is it was for very good reason. I support that decision. I was speaking directly with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the commissioner of CBP on Sunday. The days are blending together a couple days ago on this, and it was for very good reason that ultimately this referee did not get in the country. So only one referee, not multiple.

[Political Commentator]

And then when it came to the other officials and managers and press members who have been denied travel to the United States, and this is at an unprecedented level. I mean, when we talk about the World cup in Russia, when we talk about the World cup in Qatar, they didn't do this stuff. The Trump regime is like next level repressive and authoritarian. Andrew Giuliani was asked about some of the officials, managers, members of the press who were denied from other countries. Here's what he has to say. Play this clip.

[Andrew Giuliani]

We've had 35 teams that have come into the United States. No players, no coaches have been denied. There have been some officials that have been denied and for good reason. Again, we're striking that balance between making sure that any bad actors that come into the country or try to come into the country under the guise of the World cup will not get access to the United States of America.

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[Political Commentator]

You hear what he says? What? That other countries are shipping in their terrorists with the World cup team. I mean, this is such authoritarian, clownish behavior. And here he is when he's asked about why you denied the Iranian football team their ability to have their coaches and managers and staff and others who are part of the team show up. Andrew Julian is like, I can't tell you everything I know, but basically they were a bunch of terrorists is basically what he says. Here, play this clip.

[Andrew Giuliani]

Iranian coaching staff. All the Iranian coaching staff is coming in. There are some Iranian officials that are not coming in again for very good reason. Can't get into the particular particulars on that. But as you can imagine, there are some people that claim that they are coaches that may not be coaches. And for the national team, all 31 players have had their visas issued, 26, plus the five additional players as well. They're going to be able to come into the country the day before their match. They're basing in Tijuana, which is about a 25 minute flight to Los Angeles. So it'll be a real quick flight for them to be able to get up there. If they were to drive up la, it might take eight hours. So I definitely recommend that they end up flying, but they'll be able to get. And look, the President has been clear on this one. And Secretary Rubio, I know, has made multiple public statements just in the last six weeks on this one that he wants to make sure that they have every opportunity to compete on a level playing field here while also making sure that people that are directly working, let's say, with the irgc, have no ability to access the United States of America. And we are completely supportive of that.

[Political Commentator]

May I just show you for a second the difference between how Mexico is greeting teams when they arrive versus how the United States greets a team like Senecal Senegal when it arrives. Here, play this clip right here.

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Yeah, and I'm hearing that the Senegalese team really wants to boycott at this point. The World cup at the, you know, they're, they're like one of the best teams in Africa, one of the best teams out there right now. And, you know, I, I'm hearing the team members want to stand in solidarity with the Somalian referee Omar Artan to show African unity against, you know, FIFA's like, we're open to everybody. FIFA for everybody. Well, now Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump are clearly not making it for everybody, and they're making this experience absolutely horrible. Going back to where I started on this with the ticket sales, so 180,000 tickets still available. And get this, the tickets to the United States Paraguay game, there are still thousands of tickets available for the US Game. So if you're like, well, there aren't ticket sales for the Iran game or this game. Okay, there aren't ticket sales. There are still tickets available rather for US vs. Paraguay. If you can't sell out right away, the US game in the United States, there's something seriously going wrong. And then you have the Trump regime already pre blaming Europe and the who, the World Health Organization, for Ebola outbreaks in the United States. Here's how Alex Eisenstadt of Axios puts it. Trump administration pre blames Europe for any World Cup Ebola. The Trump administration, fearing that international travel could accelerate the spread of Ebola. As the World cup hits, America, is pressuring Europe to dramatically shift its strategy for preventing infection. Sources tell Axios top Trump aides are frustrated with Europe's limited travel restrictions and wanted to abandon the World Health Organization's Ebola playbook in favor of Washington's rules. They say it's tighter rules. No, you pulled out of the World Health Organization. So the Trump regime claims that the who, which the United States pulled out of the Trump pulled the US out of the who, but now we blame the WHO, for which we pulled out of the claiming the WHO failed to immediately report the outbreak and misled the world by not encouraging countries to impose travel bans and broader closures. Okay, so the United States was a leading member of who, you pulled out, and now you want to blame the WHO for the work that you claim the WHO wasn't doing. That's how pathetic this Trump regime is. It's like when they blame Biden for the screw worm outbreak. When the Trump regime cut screw worm detection, you cut Ebola detection. You gutted the cdc. You gutted usaid. You removed the US from the WHO and Ebola detection. And they look, well, Biden didn't know Biden didn't do it. You.

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You.

[Political Commentator]

You are doing it. You. You're. You're the one doing it all. Let me share with you what we're learning about Iran and Iran's team not getting its normal allocation. Let's play this clip right here.

[FIFA/World Cup Analyst]

So in the history of the World Cup, I'M not aware of anything like this happening, certainly not in recent tournaments. This morning their entire allocation of tickets had been removed. And you know, that's after people have spent huge amount of money to travel to get to games. And Iranians on the ground who have bought the tickets who can't get there, you know, and it's a huge sporting disadvantage for one of the teams to not be allowed to have any fans in there. So it was a shocking development. FIFA have eventually said after a long time today that they are talking to Iran to try to find a way around this. And it seems to be a US Government issue. And there's some talk that it's to do with financial controls rather than visa issues or anything like that. But no one's saying clearly from the US government why this has happened. We all knew that Iran in the US was going to be troublesome or problematic because of what's going on in the world, but this is it in action, I guess. And, you know, extraordinarily one of FIFA's referees, one of the best referees in Africa, was turned away and sent home to Somalia because he wasn't given the visa. I mean, and FIFA have just said, nothing to do with us. That's all down to the government. I mean, it's extraordinary. This is one of the world's best referees coming to the World Cup. And they said, no, you can't come in. It's just, it's head shaking really.

[Political Commentator]

And while fans are suffering, while football or in the U.S. soccer is suffering, what's Donald Trump doing with FIFA? Well, as the New York Times reported earlier, for the past year, FIFA has leased an office on the 17th floor of New York Trump Tower that has sat all but empty. The rent goes to Donald Trump's family business, but soccer officials say the space sits largely idle. More corruption, more direct payments being funneled directly to Donald Trump and Trump's family for a fake idle office. Or so it seems from this article. The article by the New York Times is called a years long effort to woo Trump culminates with the World Cup. Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, has unabashedly quartered the president's favor. Soccer officials privately ask who really benefits Answer Donald Trump financially, Gianni Infantino financially, but clearly not the game. For the past year, FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, has leased an office on the 17th floor of New York Trump Tower that is sat all but empty. The rent goes to Trump's family business, but soccer officials say the space sits largely idle. Paying rent to Trump was the choice of Gianni Infantino, FIFA's president, who has made being close to Trump his top priority. He's lavished the president with praise, trophies and a medal, making pilgrimage to Mar A Lago, and even the Melania documentary premiere. And it goes on to say Mr. Infantino failed to woo the Biden administration, former government officials said. But he found a receptive year in Trump, who calls him the king of soccer. A decade ago, soccer executives were terrified to travel to the United States, fearing they'd be arrested for corruption. Now, Mr. Infantino is an Oval Office regular. Corruption. Marry corruption. Now, also, the costs of everything are accelerating. Obviously, the ticket prices are now subject of a criminal and civil investigation by many state attorneys general for inflating these ticket prices and screwing over the fans. But also, very basic travel right now is like, unaffordable. Like a very basic subway ride from, like that. That runs pretty short. You're talking about 80 bucks, 120 bucks. You see, the cities that are hosting the World cup are now saddled with this burden and have massive deficits. The cities are getting crushed. And Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump are like, we're gonna make you so rich. And now the cities are suffering and they have to make up the money. They want FIFA to pay and subsidize the delta between what the travel is now going to cost the cities that have to be passed on to consumers. Kind of like tariffs. It's kind of like a tariff, if you will. So the cities want FIFA to pay the tariff, in essence, and FIFA wants to impose the costs on the city. When FIFA said, you're all going to get so rich. And not only are they not getting rich, the demand right now for tourism in the cities hosting the World cup is less than it would be in a prior year without the World Cup. Demand is down year over year because no one wants to travel to the United States with ICE and Border Patrol threatening everybody. With the United States attacking immigrants, no one wants to show up. Everything Trump touches dies. And I think this is a perfect example of it right here. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thank you.

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[FIFA/World Cup Analyst]

Com.