2026 Political Thread

[Evan]

Trump finally did something corrupt against another corrupt organization and I can cheer it. Getting Balogun's red card suspension reversed to probation is excellent.

We have a trillion dollar military budget for a reason. Letting some pipsqueak referee suspend one of our best players was maddening. The minute that red card was shown, Seal Team 6 and Delta should have been deployed. Infantino should've been getting waterboarded daily in Gitmo until he overturned the decision. Trump came through.

 

[Mike S]

Trump finally did something corrupt against another corrupt organization and I can cheer it. Getting Balogun's red card suspension reversed to probation is excellent.

We have a trillion dollar military budget for a reason. Letting some pipsqueak referee suspend one of our best players was maddening. The minute that red card was shown, Seal Team 6 and Delta should have been deployed. Infantino should've been getting waterboarded daily in Gitmo until he overturned the decision. Trump came through.

The funniest thing is, I read through his Truth Social feed this morning assuming he'd be majorly patting himself on the back, and he wasn't. One post thanking FIFA for making the right call. That tells me he didn't really try to force anything.

Now that people are heaping praise on him for his involvement, he's certainly not denying he had anything to do with it outside of a phone call and will probably begin taking credit.

When the FIFA Peace Prize winner speaks, FIFA listens, I guess.

 

[Evan]

The funniest thing is, I read through his Truth Social feed this morning assuming he'd be majorly patting himself on the back, and he wasn't. One post thanking FIFA for making the right call. That tells me he didn't really try to force anything.

Now that people are heaping praise on him for his involvement, he's certainly not denying he had anything to do with it outside of a phone call and will probably begin taking credit.

When the FIFA Peace Prize winner speaks, FIFA listens, I guess.

The White House started linking a bunch of self-congratulatory stuff yesterday about how Lutnick and Andrew Giuliani meddled or whatever. The funny thing is that FIFA (if they can be believed) claimed they were already investigating the red card and suspension before Trump called Infantino.

This morning Trump was definitely crowing a decent bit and saying stuff like if we lose that means it was rigged. I'm sure you understand the sarcasm in my previous post. I have no issue with the White House assisting US Soccer with lawyers or whatever, but they are so optically blind they never gave any consideration to how it would look even if Trump didn't actually pressure anyone or do anything unethical.

He always has to insert himself in some way. If he had made an innocuous query to Infantino, because of their supposed friendship, and the White House didn't leak it then fine. But, I think this just gave Belgium a ton of motivation and really distracted our team.

The potential good that might come from this is Infantino finally getting kicked to the curb, FIFA being forced to be more transparent, and for there to actually be an appeals process for straight red cards. I do not think it was a red card, however, I do think 20-30% of refs would have probably given a red there. Just how soccer is, unfortunately. So, if the outcome of this is a more fair and transparent process then great. But the White House crowing and getting involved is only going to backfire as it pertains to this tournament.

Hopefully, we can get our crap together for the rest of the Belgium game. Right now we look hesitant and nervous.

 

[Mike S]

Hopefully, we can get our crap together for the rest of the Belgium game. Right now we look hesitant and nervous.

I only watch soccer once every four years and even I could tell, while it was still a close game, that the U.S. was getting manhandled. The goalie coming so far out and giving up a goal was an abomination.