Donald Trump has to let it linger as he hangs on for Spain’s World Cup celebrations

He did it again. There was a world championship trophy, waiting to be held aloft at the same gargantuan stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. There was Gianni Infantino, waiting alongside the US president. And there was that same US president, Donald Trump, fresh off a round of stadium-wide booing and jeering, handing off the trophy with Infantino and then staying stubbornly in the frame as another team enjoyed the pinnacle of their professional careers with an octogenarian standing awkwardly in the shot.

Should we be surprised? Marc Cucurella probably wasn’t – the defender was on stage for both occasions, first as a member of Chelsea as they lifted the 2025 Club World Cup, and then again on Sunday when Trump once again remained in the shot as Spain celebrated their World Cup victory.

The repeated history brought an incongruous end to a night where Trump was – for most of the time – a long way from the center of attention. That would have been a relief to American sports fans, for whom a Drake-like sentiment has grown surrounding Trump’s involvement in their event of choice. Meaning, essentially, that it should be dreaded, and avoided at all costs. The New York Knicks lost their only game of the NBA finals this year with Trump in attendance at Madison Square Garden, where he also drew a lusty round of boos. And, earlier in this World Cup, the US crashed to a 4-1 defeat against Belgium in the last-16 after Trump called Infantino in a successful bid to get striker Folarin Balogun’s red card suspended.

If Trump had a similarly ruinous effect on Sunday’s World Cup final, it was in a cosmic sense. Trump watched the game from a glassed-in suite, along with Infantino, Spain’s king, Felipe VI, Canada prime minister, Mark Carney, and Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. The US secretary of state Marco Rubio was also in attendance. At one point in the second half, Trump was seen conversing with Carney.

What unfolded on the other side of the presumably bulletproof glass was 120 minutes of punishing, physical football – an enervating match that practically cried out for a sideshow.

Trump wouldn’t become that sideshow until later. He was briefly shown on the video screens at the stadium after the US national anthem was played, and there were scattered boos from some in the crowd. TV broadcasts showed him touching the trophy from his seat in the early stages of the match, and conversing with Melania Trump in the 85th minute, but he didn’t appear on the screens in the stadium during the match itself.

The hostile reception he had received in his appearances at other sporting events wasn’t repeated until he descended from his perch and walked on to the field to present the World Cup trophy along with Infantino and the other heads of state, where the vast majority of the crowd booed and jeered.

What followed was routine, up to the key moment. Trump presented medals to the players alongside the other dignitaries, shaking hands and smiling at each player with a minimum of fuss, seemingly telling them “great job” or “congratulations”. Trump and Infantino then held the World Cup trophy together and presented it to Spain’s captain, Rodri, with Infantino ducking away, stage right.

If there were lessons to be learned from Trump’s crashing of the Chelsea party last year, Infantino hadn’t learned them. Or perhaps he still felt he was not within his right to grab Trump by the arm and pull him away. Trump was then practically given an invite to stay by Rodri, who motioned Trump to the left of the podium as he prepared to set the Spanish celebrations alight. Trump made as if he would descend the staircase, but instead stood just on the edge of celebrations, seemingly not totally sure where to look, forcing Infantino to jog over and make one last plea for him to leave. It was too late. Rodri lifted the trophy, and there was Trump, in the frame. By the time the confetti fell to the grass, Trump had gone, lingering just long enough to be visible.

Just as Lionel Messi lifted his first World Cup in 2022 wearing a traditional Arab cloak, Spain hoisted their country’s second title with a reminder of the host nation lingering awkwardly in the frame.

Click here to read article