Politics

Following Messi’s lead, Milei bids to separate stadium and state

Published

2 months ago

July 19, 2026

Looming over the World Cup final is another rivalry: the bitter feud between Argentine President Javier Milei and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

For the past two years, Argentina’s libertarian-populist leader has been embroiled in a war of words with his progressive counterpart in Madrid. Milei has resented Sánchez’s efforts to cast him as a far-right firebrand, and responded by repeatedly insulting the Spanish premier and his wife, Begoña Gómez, whom he has repeatedly called “corrupt.”

In Buenos Aires, one leading political observer doesn’t expect the president to mix the World Cup final with his personal animus toward Sánchez.

“I can’t imagine him trying to turn this match into a political issue,” Martín Rodríguez Yebra, deputy managing editor of Argentina’s leading conservative newspaper La Nación, told Blue Light News. “It’s not in his interest.”

According to Rodríguez Yebra, who has spent years following the Sánchez-Milei feud, Argentina’s leader has identified Sánchez — one of the world’s most recognized left-leaning political figures — as a useful antagonist in his “cultural battle” against “woke forces around the world.”

“He uses Sánchez almost as a punching bag to demonstrate that he’s confronting the international left,” he said, adding that the tactic plays well among Milei’s most devoted followers.

But Rodríguez Yebra noted that for average Argentinians “who likely wouldn’t recognize Sánchez if he sat next to them in a café in Buenos Aires,” the contretemps is “a squabble that is seen as a random distraction” on most days, and which would be considered totally inappropriate to bring up in the almost sacred context of the World Cup final.

“There are no words to accurately describe the idolatry people feel for our current national squad, which is perhaps the most admired in modern Argentine history,” he said. “And they — and in particular [Lionel] Messi, in his role as the squad’s captain — have made clear that they will not tolerate attempts at politicization.”

In previous editions of the World Cup, Rodríguez Yebra said, Argentina’s national team had become mixed up with the country’s politics. The squad is widely considered to have been instrumentalized as a propaganda tool when the country hosted the 1978 tournament, when the government was in the hands of a military junta that carried out the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of political dissidents.

A few years later, legendary squad captain Diego Maradona didn’t hide his close relationship with center-left populist President Carlos Menem, with whom he appeared on the balcony of the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires following the country’s 1986 World Cup win. Menem would eventually make the striker his government’s official “sports adviser” and even gave him a diplomatic passport usually reserved for high-ranking officials.

Under Messi’s leadership, however, the national team has taken steps to distance itself from Argentina’s polarized political scene, and after winning the last edition of the World Cup, the squad declined an invitation from then-President Alberto Fernández to emulate Maradona and celebrate the victory at the presidential palace.

Rodríguez Yebra said the current squad captain appeared to have been shaped by his lengthy professional career with FC Barcelona, which played out in parallel with the rise of the Catalan separatist movement and the unauthorized attempt to declare the Spanish region’s independence in 2017.

“Despite the enormous pressure to do so, he never waded into the issue, and as captain for Argentina he’s taken the same approach and stayed on message,” he said. “Don’t mix us up in your politics: We’re athletes and we represent the entire country, not politicians.”

The La Nación journalist pointed out that following the semifinal match against England, Messi stayed away when some of the victorious Argentine players unfurled a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falkland Islands are Argentinian”).

“He doesn’t want to be involved,” he said.

Rodríguez Yebra said Milei is a canny politician who attempts to align himself with overwhelming public sentiment and knows how to be pragmatic. That’s why his war of words with Sánchez has ultimately not had a significant impact on Spanish-Argentine relations.

“Despite the inflammatory rhetoric between our leaders, the high-level officials below them have continued working together on trade, investment and international issues, including the recently concluded EU-Mercosur trade agreement,” he said.

“Ministers continue meeting, and diplomatic channels remain open even as the presidents trade barbs,” he added. “Milei insults Sánchez when it suits him, and right now, given the team’s insistence to keep politics out of the match, it is not in his interest to do so.”

On Sunday, Argentina’s president will be playing the part of cheerleader-in-chief from Buenos Aires. While Sánchez will watch the match in person in New York, Milei will remain at home in an act of political superstition.

“In 1990 Menem traveled to Italy to watch our team play against Cameroon and he ended up presiding over our most shocking World Cup defeat,” Rodríguez Yebra said. “The episode was politically devastating for him, because it caused him to develop a reputation for being jinxed, and since then our presidents have steered clear of the matches.”

Rodríguez Yebra said Milei has every interest in doing whatever he can to ward off bad luck.

Rising unemployment and corruption cases involving close aides have eroded the president’s approval ratings, with around 60 percent of voters saying they disapprove of his performance. While the lack of a serious political rival means that the populist remains the clear front-runner ahead of next year’s presidential election, an Argentine win on Sunday would still be a godsend.

The same goes for Sánchez, should La Roja emerge victorious. Unlike Argentina, Spain’s unemployment is at a record low and the country’s economy is among the fastest-growing in Europe. But like Milei, the prime minister is grappling with damaging corruption scandals. Last month, the country’s former transport minister was handed a 24-year prison sentence for bribery, embezzlement and influence peddling, and earlier this week, Sánchez’s brother was found guilty of administrative misconduct after a regional court concluded he had been unfairly awarded a public sector position.

“This World Cup has been a welcome distraction that has already helped him enormously, and could benefit him even further if it results in our team’s victory,” Rodríguez Yebra said about Milei. “Even without engaging in politics, a win for our team is a win for him.”

Politics

Supreme Court rejects bid to revive Missouri’s pro-GOP redistricting before midterms

Published

2 hours ago

September 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A ruling from the Supreme Court on Tuesday means Missouri voters will likely go to the polls this fall under the same congressional map used two years ago, not one Republican state lawmakers adopted to try to pick up an additional House seat for the GOP.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh turned down a Republican-backed emergency appeal that sought to block a Missouri Supreme Court ruling last week restoring earlier district lines and ordering voters to weigh in on the redistricting plan in November for use in future elections.

Kavanaugh issued the ruling because he handles urgent matters arising in the 8th Circuit, which includes Missouri. Kavanaugh issued no explanation of his decision, nor did he indicate that he referred the matter to the full court, as is customary in significant cases. Missouri officials could ask another justice for relief, but such requests are almost never granted.

The justices rarely disturb state courts’ decisions about matters like the referendum petitions in Missouri that sought to put the redistricting before voters for approval.

However, lawyers for Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins warned the Supreme Court that the state faced “disaster” and “unprecedented chaos” in part because primaries already took place under the new lines last month.

Democrats argued any last-minute chaos to Missouri’s election administration was intentionally created by Hoskins, pointing to Republican leaders in the state arguing that delaying the decision on the redistricting referendum would benefit Republicans.

President Donald Trump denounced the state supreme court ruling last week.

“The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America!” he wrotein a post on Truth Social. “Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect just a couple of months ago, in the Primary. This is a Dark Day for “Justice” in Missouri!”

Politics

Gavin Newsom’s first 2028 test: This fall, in Nevada

Published

1 day ago

September 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

LAS VEGAS — If California Gov. Gavin Newsom runs for president in 2028, next-door Nevada will be a crucial test. This fall’s governor’s race is offering a preview.

As GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo runs for reelection, he’s trying to pin high Nevada fuel prices — a majority of which is imported from California — on “Gavin Newsom’s energy policies.” He lambasts California as too expensive and too regulated. And he’s hammering his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Aaron Ford, for accepting Newsom’s endorsement, betting that it will turn off Nevada swing voters.

“The contrast is simple: I’m fighting Gavin Newsom’s agenda and Aaron Ford is trying to import it into Nevada,” Lombardo said in a statement to Blue Light News.

This could be a test run for 2028, when Newsom may call upon Nevadans — one-fifth of whom were born in California — to deliver him a primary victory in the early-voting state, and possibly a presidential victory.

“They understand California costs more,” Donna West, chair of the Nevada Democratic Party’s senior caucus, said of Nevada’s California expats. “They also understand that California is the fourth-largest economy in the entire world, and that Gavin Newsom ran that as effectively as he possibly can.”

Newsom’s office declined to comment. A person close to the governor, granted anonymity to discuss the sentiment in his orbit, said they are “thrilled” Republicans are spending money to “plaster Newsom’s name across a key early state.”

“Republicans seem awfully concerned about an endorsement from someone who leads the 2028 Democratic field in Nevada by nearly 2-to-1,” the person said, pointing to a November 2025 Emerson poll of a hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary field.

Ford, for his part, shrugs off the attacks.

“Lombardo tries to cast blame elsewhere, but everyone knows that when the war started in February, that we saw our gas prices increase almost immediately,” Ford told Blue Light News after a recent town hall in Las Vegas. “People believe their own eyes, and they remember their experiences.”

The demonization of California is nothing new in Nevada politics: For years, Republicans have blasted their western neighbor as too expensive and too woke.

But the stakes are higher, and the connection more palpable, this year, as Newsom explores a presidential bid. He would likely need to perform very well in Nevada, now second on the Democratic calendar, to build early momentum toward the party nomination. And come November 2028, he’d need to fare well in Nevada again, this time among the state’s general electorate, a plurality of which are independents.

Newsom has stumped for Democrats across the country this cycle, and he blitzed through the South this week, including a swing through South Carolina, whose Democrats will vote first, right before Nevada, in 2028.

But Republicans are looking to weaponize Newsom’s Silver State swing in July, where Ford introduced him at a new Las Vegas field office as “the governor of the great state of California.”

“Our next president!” an audience member shouted, eliciting cheers.

The Lombardo-aligned Better Nevada PAC shared polling with Blue Light News in July showing Newsom’s favorability 20 points underwater in Nevada and losing a hypothetical 2028 head-to-head with Vice President JD Vance. Shortly thereafter, the PAC began an ad blitz tying Ford to the California governor.

Billboards touting Newsom’s endorsement of Ford, paid for by the PAC, now line highways across Nevada, and digital and streaming ads have run consistently since the visit. “Newsom and Ford: Shared vision. Shared values,” one ad says.

A person familiar with the PAC’s internal polling, granted anonymity to discuss private data, said it shows Newsom’s endorsement is now the second-most-known datapoint about the attorney general.

“Gavin Newsom is the singular most unpopular elected official in Nevada,” said Jeremy Hughes, a longtime Nevada GOP strategist running the Lombardo-aligned PAC. “Aaron Ford brought him into the state. … There’s no better way to help him out than to put up these signs and run ads, letting people know that he’s excited about being endorsed by Gavin Newsom.”

Republicans in the state have long blamed Californian expats for housing shortages and rising prices and connect their opponents to California liberals. A surge of ex-Californians leaving the state during the Covid-19 pandemic, some fleeing high taxes and cost of living, accelerated the trend.

Sam Brown, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in 2022, blasted the “energy policies of Gavin Newsom”; in 2018, GOP governor nominee Adam Laxalt lamented the “Californization” of Nevada, even as Californians bankrolled his campaign. During Lombardo’s first run for governor in 2022, he slammed incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak for taking his cues from Newsom: “Don’t let Steve Sisolak turn Nevada into California,” one post said. Republicans tied their opponents to Nancy Pelosi for decades.

Lombardo’s argument this time around is more focused. He notes that the vast majority of Nevada’s gasoline comes from California, and argues that California’s efforts to cut carbon emissions have caused fuel prices to soar. A gallon of gas in Nevada costs nearly $5, according to AAA, one of the highest prices in the nation.

“The policies coming from Gavin Newsom and California Democrats … don’t stop at their state line,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Nevada and other states import a significant portion of our fuel from California, so when Governor Newsom shuts down refineries and imposes regulations that reduce supply and increase costs, Nevada families feel the consequences at the pump.”

It’s a strategy that allows Lombardo — running in a difficult national environment for incumbent Republicans — to acknowledge voters’ economic pain without blaming President Donald Trump or his own party. Indeed, Lombardo shared an April column in the Nevada Independent that placed blame at the feet of both Newsom and Trump. (Lombardo, in his post, blamed only Newsom.)

Democrats don’t think voters will buy it. ‘“As far as gas prices, it’s so obviously increased since the war,” Rep. Dina Titus said. “People in Nevada aren’t stupid.”

Ford has his own millstone to saddle Lombardo with: the president. At a recent town hall in Las Vegas, he repeatedly blasted the “Lombardo-Trump economy” that is “making everything too expensive.”

“Voters absolutely tie the handling of the economy to Trump,” said Mike Noble, an independent Phoenix-based pollster who works in Nevada regularly. “Instead of blaming Trump, why not tie it to the boogeyman next door and blame California?”