Did Donald Trump Cause The USMNT's World Cup Exit? | OneFootball

The United States was flying high in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, having won every game that mattered and doing so in a very encouraging fashion. Then, following an intervention by President Trump, everything went wrong. Was it a coincidence, or did Trump’s meddling, which undoubtedly tainted a feel-good factor around the camp to that point, play a part in their exit, or at least the manner of it?

Though a game against Belgium was the toughest test the USMNT had faced in the tournament so far, it was not like they had had it easy to that point.

The US dismantled a Paraguay team that knocked out Germany and ran France close (whether you agree with how they did it or not). It then did what it needed to against Australia and Bosnia, creating the better chances in the game and taking them to produce a couple of classic 2-0 tournament wins that any team, regardless of their place in the rankings, would happily take.

What was noticeable about this United States team in those first games was that they looked tactically switched on. Not just following the instructions of their manager, Mauricio Pochettino, positionally and in terms of the game plan, but also alive to situations, competitive, and tenacious.

There was none of that against Belgium.

This wasn’t just that Belgium had the better team with the better players. It also looked like they were more tuned in to the competitive nature of the contest. Anyone who has followed these highly talented Belgium teams for a while knows that this is not always the case with them.

If the United States were to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals, they needed to be better in the battles, even if they couldn’t always be better at the football. They needed to be fully concentrated and switched on throughout. As it was, they looked like a completely different team to the one that had played in those games against Paraguay, Australia, and Bosnia, which begged the question: why?

The occasion could have got to them, too, but the occasion was partly influenced by Trump, who had urged FIFA to overturn a red card suspension for striker Folarin Balogun. FIFA then agreed, with the perception being that they did so at Trump’s request. This was no longer just sports news; it was filling the politics sections and the front pages too.

There is no doubt that Trump's intervention affected the team and that they could have done without it. His interference dominated the buildup to the game, to the point where it will have been impossible for the players to ignore it.

It was and is unfair on Folarin Balogun, whose name will forever be associated with this act of corruption. It is also unfair on the US players, who, though they will have tried to ignore it, had to deal with this situation. If they had beaten Belgium, they wouldn’t have got the credit they deserved, as the accusations of corruption would have grown even louder.

On the one hand, it distracted the US. On the other, it motivated Belgium. The Belgian players said as much after the game, and they also showed how much it was on their minds with their mocking of Trump in the aftermath.

They performed the ‘Trump dance’ after scoring the fourth goal, and also played YMCA by the Village People, one of Trump’s go-to tunes, in the locker room after the game, repeating the dance. Even Amadou Onana, on crutches with an ACL injury, joined in.

Trump’s actions as president have already caused issues at this World Cup off the pitch, from the unfair treatment of the Iranian national team to issuing travel bans on numerous countries, preventing their fans back home from attending.

The World Cup was already compromised by the United States off the field, to the point where, regardless of how good the football was and is, it could not be considered a total success.

Now it was compromised on the field, too. Trump had gotten directly involved with an incident that resulted in a suspension of a one-match ban for a red card, something that is unprecedented in the middle of a tournament in the modern game.

It’s worth taking another look at the challenge that caused all of this in the first place.

There has since been widespread comment and consensus that the initial challenge that caused all of this, by Balogun on Tarik Muharemović, was not a red card.

With this in mind, it’s worth looking back at the challenge again. Balogun’s foot lands on the upper ankle of Muharemović, causing it to buckle in the sort of motion that can often lead to a serious ankle sprain or even a break. It was for this reason that it was deemed to be endangering the safety of the opponent, therefore fitting one of the definitions of serious foul play that leads to a red card.

Plenty of red cards have been given for such unintentional fouls in the past and, unfortunate though they are, intention doesn’t come into it when the challenge is deemed to be endangering the safety of an opponent.

Balogun didn’t mean to harm the player, but nevertheless could have done so seriously.

In the end, FIFA didn’t overturn the red card anyway. It simply suspended the suspension for one year. If anything, FIFA doubled down on the referee's decision, and also pointed out that Balogun was in the wrong to return to the field after his sending off to celebrate with his teammates, fining him $40,000.

FIFA says that the suspension will only be activated “if [Balogun] commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during that one-year period.”

The view held by many, including Fox Sports pundit Thierry Henry, that the right conclusion had been reached but in the wrong way, ignores that the red card itself, though unfortunate, was not entirely unwarranted.

And contrary to some reports doing the rounds, the VAR can use slow motion to determine the point of contact and is actually advised to do so in the laws of the game.

Rather than helping, Trump’s involvement caused a massive headache for US Soccer, and for Balogun.

Prior to this moment, the USMNT had been experiencing a successful World Cup on and off the field, even if the US government, as part of its role as hosts, had not.

The US players were standing for everything the Trump administration dislikes. They are a diverse group made up of players from many backgrounds, some born in other countries, who have moved in a sporting sense to represent the United States. Despite growing up in England, Balogun himself is a US citizen by birthright, a 150-year-old policy that Trump’s administration has been trying to end.

A diverse squad was giving their all, getting some good results and playing some good soccer. It is wrong to suggest that they had not faced any tough tests, and they were playing as well as they have under Pochettino at just the right time.

Belgium may well have won that game if all of this hadn’t happened, but the lack of vigour from the US, and their inability to at least make a fight of it, was an anomaly as far as this tournament is concerned. It is not a stretch to suggest the upset caused by Trump played a role in their meek exit. It certainly affected perceptions of the US team, and ruined what had been a positive progression through the tournament as hosts.

To adhere to Betteridge's law of headlines, Trump alone did not cause the USMNT's World Cup exit, but he certainly played a big role in the manner in which it happened, gave the team a much lower chance of causing an upset, and motivated Belgium. There's no doubt the negative way in which the USMNT ended what had been such a positive World Cup for them to that point was down to him.