Trump’s interest only grew when the U.S. won World Cup hosting rights in 2018. Nothing excites Trump like hosting a major event, and Giuliani recalled that, at the time, the president and his aides were almost wistful that he wouldn’t be in the White House when the tournament arrived, assuming he would be well into a post-presidency following an immediate second term.
The relationship flourished in 2020 as both men plotted their futures.
The ceremony happened as Infantino was aligning FIFA’s sporting and commercial ties with Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It followed a pattern of Infantino, much like Trump, cozying up to autocratic leaders.
As the connection between Trump and Infantino deepened, Joe Biden dashed Trump’s hopes of staying in the White House. For the next four years, Infantino’s ties to Washington were far more limited. The two leaders had a brief meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, a fleeting moment FIFA captured with one photo on its website.
Preparations for the World Cup under Biden were under the radar by design, according to one senior official for that administration who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Even though the administration had its own World Cup 2026 task force, Biden aides were aware of sensitivities surrounding large gatherings so soon after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Infantino visited the White House while Biden was president at least once, meeting for about an hour in 2024 with then-national security adviser Jake Sullivan, an avid soccer fan. Biden officials emphasized to Infantino that they wanted to ensure the host cities ultimately benefited from holding World Cup matches and that the U.S.’s human rights values would be respected.
Infantino has teased the idea of Trump doing the draw himself, which Giuliani called the “MAGA-FIFA World Cup draw.”
“Just like a great opera, there will be high drama,” Giuliani said.
During Infantino’s most recent appearance at Trump’s side in the Oval Office on Aug. 22, he took even some fellow soccer officials by surprise when he gifted a gold replica World Cup trophy to the U.S. president, saying it was “for winners only.”
That handover was unexpected, according to one senior soccer official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive dynamics. Even though it was a replica, the moment was still seen as a snub of World Cup tradition because Trump has held onto a trophy that is supposed to belong to the sport as a whole, not an individual person.
A White House official said the trophy remains in the White House’s possession.
No such offer was publicly extended by FIFA to Mexico’s President Claudia Scheinbaum or Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney. Infantino has not met with Carney this year and met Sheinbaum for the first time on Aug. 29.
The episode is a reminder of how Infantino can shift with the moment. The man who remarked in Qatar on the eve of the World Cup in November 2022 that “today, I feel (like) a migrant worker” — comments interpreted as solidarity with migrants — was laughing along with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this year as they bantered about migrants being unable to scale the repainted wall on the U.S. southern border.
Infantino has framed his close relationship with Trump as “crucial” to the success of the World Cup, a massive operation that relies on expansive cooperation with federal, state and local governments. Trump’s suggestion that he could move the host cities was a reminder that Infantino is working with a famously impulsive president whose whims could expose FIFA to logistical havoc and legal jeopardy if he followed through.
“This needs to go well in order to show the world that if you want to have the best sports and entertainment events, you want to have them in the United States,” said Alex Lasry, CEO of the New York/New Jersey host committee. “I don’t think it’s unusual for a White House to be coordinating and be involved, and I don’t think it’s unusual for the heads of state and for the president to be excited and to be talking about a mega event coming here.”
___
Dunbar reported from Geneva.
