President Donald Trump’s appearance at the 2026 World Cup Final was met with a loud — and unmistakable — reaction from the crowd.
After Jennifer Hudson performed a gorgeous rendition of the U.S. national anthem at the Sunday, July 19, championship game, Trump, 80, was shown clapping while standing from his section inside Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
As the camera panned to him, Trump was audibly booed by the audience. He watched the match — where defending champs Argentina faced off against Spain — beside his wife, Melania, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
Weeks earlier, Trump made headlines when he called Infantino to review the red card given to United States men’s national team player Folarin Balogun after the round of 32 game.
“All I did was ask for a review. I didn’t say, you have to do this,” Trump said at a White House media briefing earlier this month, per ESPN. “This man is a smart, tough man, Gianni Infantino. He’s a smart, tough man, and his stock has gone through the roof because the job he has done has been great. I feel like we have to have all the best players on the field.”
Trump called Balogun’s one-game suspension, which a player automatically faces with a red card, “very unfair.”
“How do you penalize them for a game that hasn’t been played?” Trump said, noting that the red card was a “horrible” call. “I didn’t think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed each other and got entangled.”
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“I saw the play, and I’m a person that loves sports … that wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction … this referee, who is a little bit suspect if you check his past. He made a call that nobody could believe … he’s our best player, or one of our best players. And he gave him a red card. I didn’t know what that meant,” he continued. “Yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. [Balogun] didn’t do anything wrong, and he’s our best player or one of our best players.”
After Trump’s comments, FIFA later announced that Balogun was able to play. “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump wrote via X at the time.
At the time, the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said it was “astonished” by the decision, per AP News. The United States men’s national team ultimately lost the round of 16 matchup against Belgium.
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