President Donald Trump Thursday night literally threatened countries around the world voting over who will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer games.
“The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump said on Twitter. “It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?”
According to World Cup rules, countries in Europe and Asia, including Russia, are not eligible to host the 2026 Games. The only other official bid is from Morocco.
Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl last month wrote, “we should not be surprised if the 53 African countries vote for Morocco, in part because Morocco is an African country. But also because I think it’s pretty natural that a lot of these countries would not want to vote for the U.S. when it has a leader who has called African countries “s**thole” countries.”
Voting is next month.
Trump has never before shown an interest in the World Cup, at least on Twitter.
Some responses via Twitter: