Make no mistake. I’m rooting for the U.S. as we take on Belgium today in Seattle for a place in the World Cup quarterfinals.
But the game isn’t what it was — before Trump got FIFA president Gianni Infantino to lift the suspension of America’s top scorer, striker Folarin Balogun, who got a red card in a match against Bosnia and Herzegovina and would otherwise have been suspended from tonight’s match.
“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right and reversing a great injustice!” Trump clucked on social media Sunday afternoon.
When my two boys were young and just learning to play games, they were competitive — as children often are. When one of them was losing, he often asked me to intervene. “Dad! Adam cheated!” “Dad! Sam cheated!”
Unless the so-called “cheating” was obvious, I gently explained that I wouldn’t weigh in. I wanted them to understand that one of the purposes of learning to play games is accept losses, even if the result may seem unfair.
Later, when they became teenagers and played soccer or Little League baseball, there were times when they didn’t agree with a referee’s call. On a few of these occasions, they came to me in tears of outrage and self-righteousness, wanting me to say something to the referee.
I did not. “We have to rely on referees,” I remember saying. “That’s part of the game.”
The purpose of the game wasn’t just to win. The purpose of any game is to have fun, to enjoy the sport. It’s also to appreciate the contestants on both sides — their skill and excellence. And to follow the rules.
Yet now Trump is showing the world once again that America doesn’t play by the rules. We don’t accept losses and we don’t accept referees’ calls.
I don’t know about you, but Trump’s intervention in the World Cup has ruined the game for me.
Also read: Belgium blasts FIFA over Balogun controversy
How can anyone ever again trust that the United States has won a game fair and square? How can the fine athletes representing us rejoice in a victory when the president of the United States has used his political power to change a referee’s call?
We try to teach our children morality. We explain to them the difference between winning and playing honourably and well. We try to inculcate in them a sense of fairness.
We want them to trust that in the game of life they may be rewarded for their skill and their tenacity, but they may not always be. We also want them to play the game of life with honesty and compassion.
We don’t want them to bully their way to success, as Trump has done his whole life.
Bullies who abuse their power by altering the rules of a game to favour themselves end up spoiling the game for everyone.
They destroy the trust on which any system — be it a World Cup competition, or a political race, or a market economy — ultimately depends.
Now we have a World Cup in which an American president has put his thumb on the scale. As a result, he has forever tarnished the integrity of the game.
Like his big lies about the 2020 election and the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump has also tarnished the integrity of America.
© 2026 Robert Reich
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104
