Politics
Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, taking aim at GOP
BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump’s interference with FIFA’s disciplinary measures ahead of the U.S.-Belgium match had unintended consequences: He fired up the Belgians.
After limping through the group stage and first knockout round, Belgium cleaned the floor with the U.S. in the round of 16, after Trump intervened to help overturn a suspension for America’s key attacker, Folarin Balogun.
The Belgian squad wasted no time in trolling Trump after the match, as a viral clip from the team dressing room showed the players jiving like the U.S. president to his favorite campaign rally anthem: Y.M.C.A. by the Village People.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, a notorious soccerphobe, was then asked about Trump and the suspension saga during a key NATO military summit in Ankara.
“We didn’t speak about football,” De Wever said. “Football is, as they say, the most important of the non-important subjects, but it is still non-important, so I didn’t raise it,” he added, paraphrasing a remark widely attributed to soccer nut Pope John Paul II.
The Belgian national soccer team social media crew was blunter in its victorious post-match summary: “Overturn this,” it noted pointedly.
Red Devil-themed Jupiler beer cans, football-shaped Leonidas chocolates and sticker collectables at the Delhaize supermarket — Belgium is all on its World Cup run.
Even the country’s flag carrier, Brussels Airlines, has gotten in on the act.
In a tongue-in-cheek gesture, Brussels Airlines is flying its Trident aircraft, painted in the colors and bearing the emblems of Belgium’s national football teams, to Spanish destinations including Madrid and Barcelona ahead of Friday’s World Cup quarterfinal between Belgium and Spain.
Asked about the move, Brussels Airlines declined to elaborate, saying via email: “We did not provide any comments, as we think the joke speaks for itself :).”
The specially designed aircraft features a trident in reference to the Red Devils, Belgium’s men’s national football team, alongside flames representing the women’s team, the Red Flames.
According to Brussels Airlines, the design was intended to highlight both teams because “it’s high time that the women’s team gets as much attention as the men’s team.”
Iberia, Spain’s national airline, also has a specially designed aircraft that flew the country’s national football team across the Atlantic. Instead of tridents and flames, it features an image of Spain’s squad alongside the slogan: “A team takes off. A country flies.”
Separatist politics have long spilled onto Spanish football pitches. In Catalonia, where nationalist sentiments run deep, clubs like FC Barcelona have historically served as powerful symbols of the pro-independence movement. Their matches have often become venues in which fans display separatist flags and placards, and at major games they’ve expressed their support for separatism by whistling while the Spanish national anthem is played and booing dignitaries like Spain’s King Felipe VI.
The national team, which plays a World Cup quarter-final match Friday against Belgium, has also found itself enmeshed in separatist controversy. But the political drama has largely been missing from this year’s squad.
In the nearly 9 years that have elapsed since the Catalan independence referendum, the pro-independence movement has lost steam and the region’s citizens have grown tired of the constant tension with the rest of Spain. Since regional elections were held in 2024, when nationalist parties failed to win a majority of seats for the first time since 1984, the Catalan government has since focused on normalizing relations with Madrid.
That shift is evident in football. While FC Barcelona remains the region’s most beloved team, it is today a much more international operation, a powerhouse with a commercial strategy that targets an international audience with global football stars like Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.
They stand in contrast to figures like long-time Barcelona player Gerard Piqué, a much-decorated defender who was also a member of Spain’s national team.
When Piqué, who was born and raised in Barcelona, was first drafted to play on the national team, the Catalan separatist movement had not yet exploded, and the center back largely avoided publicly discussing Catalan independence. Indeed, after Spain won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he became a beloved figure across the country. Likewise, when he was drafted for the 2014 edition of the tournament in Brazil, he wasn’t associated with the growing push to separate Catalonia from Spain.
But in 2017 Piqué publicly declared his support for a proposed referendum on the region’s independence, and after the Spanish government moved to shut down the unauthorized vote, he criticized the violent crackdown that saw police deployed to polling stations. Although the footballer insisted that he was not a separatist, he stressed that Catalans should have a say in their future. “You should be able to vote yes, no, or abstain, but you should be able to vote,” he said at the time.
Piqué’s stance made him a controversial figure ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In the lead up to the tournament, he was verbally abused by spectators at training sessions, leading him to offer to drop out of the national team if he was determined to be too much of a distraction. He played, but announced his retirement from the group following Spain’s elimination from the tournament.
There’s no lack of Catalans on Spain’s current national team. The country’s biggest star, Lamine Yamal, plays for Barça and was born in a suburb of Barcelona, and he’s accompanied by eight other players born or raised in the region, among them Pau Cubarsí and Marc Cucurella.
While none of them are known for making pro-independence statements, three of them — Eric García, Dani Olmo, and Joan García — were recently embroiled in controversy after being photographed with a separatist symbol. After FC Barcelona won the Spanish league title last May, the players were seen waving esteladas — a flag associated with the Catalan independence movement — while parading through the regional capital. Although some conservatives called for them to not be included in the national team, all three were ultimately tapped to take part in this year’s tournament.
- How Trump radicalized the Belgians
- Belgian airline needles Spain ahead of World Cup quarterfinal
- Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, taking aim at GOP
- Friday’s Campaign Round-Up, 7.10.26: Democrats pour into Maine race to replace Platner
- Mexican immigrant killed by ICE was not target, Democratic lawmaker says
- Victor Marx’s GOP primary win in Colorado creates a new challenge for his party
- Trump’s refusal to sign the bipartisan housing bill hurts his own party for no reason
- Trump gets an airport and a bridge named after him on the same day, extending pattern
- Spain’s post-separatist team
- Rahm Emanuel attacks Trump’s negotiations with Iran
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship10 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words