2026 World Cup and President Trump’s Policies
Foreign Policy Brief #203 | Reilly Fitzgerald | June 6, 2025
The United States and its neighbors have long had a successful, and peaceful (mostly) existence. The United States, Canada, and Mexico have had free-trade agreements; entered into military alliances together; fought in wars together. However, since the inauguration of President Trump, these relationships have been tested – dramatically. The White House has called for Canada to become the “51st State”; the United States has changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”. Publicly, President Sheibaum and Prime Minister Carney, of Mexico and Canada, respectively, have criticized President Trump and his policies both from afar and in-person.
The idea of a North American World Cup has been in the making for years, having been chosen by the 68th FIFA Congress in 2018. What was once expected to be a great display of three countries and their relationship with one another, is perhaps heading to be a dramatic mess due to policies coming out of the White House.
Also the Trump Administration’s most recent ban on travel from Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Haiti, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Myanmar, Eritrea, Sudan, and Yemen, will most certainly have impacts on the major sporting tournaments that are upcoming in the United States through the rest of his administration (if this remains in effect). The upcoming sporting events being held in the United States during Trump’s term, include the CONCACAF Gold Cup this summer in the United States and the 2026 FIFA World Cup being hosted between Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and then the summer of 2028, the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Analysis
Trump’s most recent executive order, a travel ban, does make an exception for “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State”. However, it is unclear as to how this provision will play out with the sheer volume of fans and supporters likely to attend these major events and the wait times for visas to enter the United States.
This summer the team most impacted by any of these bans will be the Haitian National Team as they will be participating in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which is a soccer tournament for North and South American teams and the Caribbean nations. Haitian refugees and immigrants have been victims of President Trump’s, and his supporters, false claims used to spew hatred and fear; this particularly culminated in the claims that Haitians were eating cats and dogs in Ohio right before the 2024 Presidential Election. This summer is also the FIFA Club World Cup competition in the United States, and that is expected to bring in about 3.5 million spectators to the United States.
Next summer’s World Cup is estimated to bring in over 6.5 million spectators to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Iran has already qualified to participate in the World Cup, and will be expected to travel to North America for this event. Though, it seems the athletes and coaching staff will be able to come to the United States for this tournament; it remains to be seen what will happen with the families of the players, and the fans of their national team who should be able to travel to matches during the tournament in the United States. However, this could be tricky for Iranian fans due to the nature of the relationship between the American and Iranian governments.
The travel ban is most likely going to have a significant impact on the ability of spectators and fans to go to the United States during any of these massive sporting events (though could potentially still see matches in Canada and Mexico). The travel ban executive orders from the Trump Administration clearly states that the Secretary of State will have a significant role in this process of admitting or rejecting visa applications for athletes, coaches, and fans to come to the United States. According to Yahoo News, the State Department has promised to reduce the wait times for visas. Some countries are experiencing very high wait times for visas to the United States, such as Colombia which has a wait time of about 700 days, and Turkey’s wait time which is around 500 days as well. Both of these country’s teams will be present for the World Cup and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Some countries have more reasonable wait times, like Brazil which has a wait time of about one month. There are about 43 countries in the world that qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, which the State Department says it “enables most citizens or nationals of participating countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.” The make-up of these countries is mostly European countries (about 30 of the 43), Israel, Qatar, Australia and New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan, and Iceland. The Visa Waiver Program will make it easy for many fans to access the venues in the United States for the World Cup, but it ought to be noted that fans from other countries will face challenges getting visas for the tournament.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded that FIFA begin to examine alternatives to having the United States host the World Cup. HRW believes that the Trump Administration’s policies towards immigrants, LGBTQ+ communities, attacking free speech, and more, are grounds enough for FIFA to find an alternative to the United States as one of the three hosts. HRW has pointed out, according to Politico, FIFA’s own legislation says its role is “to promote the protection of human rights”. Andrea Florence, the Director of the Sports and Rights Alliance said last year to Amnesty International that “Before it awards any tournament, FIFA must ensure binding human rights agreements that fully protect workers, local communities, players and fans, including safeguarding against abuse and discrimination of racial and religious minorities, women and LGBTI people.”
Major sporting events around the world have drawn criticisms over the selection of host nations. One only has to go back to 1936 to see Nazi Germany host the summer Olympics – which anyone would agree is insane to consider. In modern times, Russia has hosted the Olympics and the World Cup (2014 and 2018, respectively). Brazil was under scrutiny for abuses in the lead up to hosting the World Cup and Olympics (2014 and 2016, respectively). Qatar hosted the most recent World Cup in 2022, with plenty of reported human rights abuses. Amnesty International has already reported on the risk for human rights issues with the 2030 World Cup being hosted by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. The United States should have been a no-brainer to hosting the World Cup and upholding the values of international sporting competitions to value human rights and the rule of law. Now, it is much less clear.
Engagement Resources
- Executive Order – https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/restricting-the-entry-of-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-united-states-from-foreign-terrorists-and-other-national-security-and-public-safety-threats/
- Human Rights Watch Letter to FIFA President – https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/06/letter-fifa-re-human-rights-responsibilities-2026-world-cup
- Playing a Dangerous Game? (Amnesty International) – https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/06/global-fifa-must-protect-human-rights-by-securing-binding-safeguards-from-2030-and-2034-world-cup-bidders-new-report/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CBefore%20it%20awards%20any%20tournament,%2C%20women%20and%20LGBTI%20people.%E2%80%9D