Infantino? “He would do it”
Trump threatens to move World Cup venues – FIFA reacts
Updated 10/15/2025 – 8:09 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
US President Donald Trump is in a power struggle with democratically governed cities. Now he is even threatening them with regard to important sporting events.
In a dispute with several democratically governed cities, Donald Trump made an unusual threat – and brought the 2026 World Cup into play. The US President indicated that he wanted to use his influence at FIFA to remove undesirable venues from the World Cup plan.
Trump said on Tuesday (local time) in the White House that he could easily persuade FIFA President Gianni Infantino to remove cities like Boston as venues. The statement came amid discussions about political differences with several US cities governed by Democrats.
The Republican once again pointed to problems with allegedly escalating crime. In this way, Trump has been trying for months to justify the deployment of National Guard troops in democratically governed US cities – against the will of the governors of the respective states who are normally responsible for this.
When asked about Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Trump said she was “radically left-wing” and was harming her own city. “If someone is doing a bad job and I feel that the conditions (for hosting World Cup games) are unsafe, then I would call Gianni, the phenomenal head of Fifa, and I would say: ‘Let’s move it somewhere else.’ And he would do it.” Infantino probably wouldn’t be happy about it, Trump added. “But he would do it in a heartbeat. He would do it. And now is the right time to do it.”
FIFA reacted cautiously to Trump’s statements on Wednesday. A spokesman said the world football governing body hopes “that all 16 venues are ready to host the games successfully and meet all the necessary requirements.” Safety is “the top priority at all FIFA events worldwide,” the FIFA spokesman added. However, it is “of course the responsibility of governments” to make decisions in this area.
The USA, Canada and Mexico are co-hosting the World Cup next summer (June 11 to July 19). 11 of the 16 host cities alone are in the United States – including Boston and the also democratically governed West Coast metropolis of Los Angeles. The Californian city in particular made headlines around the world when Trump deployed soldiers there months ago in the first operation of this kind – with the declared aim of pushing back protests against raids by the immigration agency ICE. Operations later followed in other cities, for which National Guardsmen were also mobilized despite political resistance.