President Donald Trump showed up at the FIFA Club World Cup Finals in New Jersey on Sunday, and it was just embarrassing all around. From the stadium booing him to his comically try-hard attempt to insert himself into the victory celebration, the whole thing made him look like the grasping buffoon he is.
After Chelsea FC pulled off an upset, beating Paris Saint-Germain FC, the expected winners, 3-0, they took to the pitch for the award ceremony. Enter Trump, who decided he should hand out medals and shove himself into the middle of the Chelsea squad as they gathered to receive the trophy for winning the Club Cup.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino eventually had to pull him back so the players could celebrate without Trump. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, named the top player of the tournament after scoring two of Chelsea’s three goals, was as perplexed as everyone else about this, the Associated Press reported. “I knew he was going to be here, but I didn’t know he was going to be on the stand when we lifted the trophy, so I was a bit confused.”
You know what else is confusing? That the trophy Chelsea was hoisting may be a replica, because according to Trump, Infantino gave him the real trophy during a March White House visit and told him he could keep it. Sure, seems fine.
Trump was booed when he walked onto the pitch. He was booed when he was shown on the Jumbotron. He was booed during the national anthem. Despite this, wannabe state media outlet the New York Post ran with a piece saying Trump was greeted by huge applause.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s insertion of himself into the world of sports was equal parts comical and gross. Who can forget his trip to the 2025 Super Bowl, where he apparently left, pouting, at halftime?
And last month, at the start of the FIFA Club World Cup, Italian soccer powerhouse team Juventus visited the White House, where Trump buttonholed them about trans athletes, asking whether a woman could make their team. When the team’s general manager explained that Juventus also had a very good women’s team, Trump responded: “But they should be playing with women, right? You know, one of those things.”
Trump showing up at the FIFA Club World Cup was pretty rich after his administration declared that Customs and Border Patrol agents would act as security for the first Cup game in Miami; An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told the media that non-Americans should bring papers documenting their immigration status. Or that federal agents tried to bully their way into Dodger Stadium before a scheduled game while in the midst of terrorizing Los Angeles. Or that the administration insists that soccer-related tattoos are proof of membership in the notorious MS-13 gang and justifies deporting people.
Trump’s immigration crackdown means that even American sports teams now have to warn their non-American players to carry papers documenting their status. Who doesn’t love their sports events with a side of “papers, please?” and the continual looming threat of deportation?
When your entire administration is focused on eradicating multiculturalism and making white supremacy the law of the land, showing up at sporting events that celebrate that very thing is ridiculous. Stay the hell home, man.