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\n

Some of soccer\u2019s biggest names have to come to play at the World Cup: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Erling Haaland, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior and now even Cristiano Ronaldo have left their mark on the score sheet.<\/p>\n

But one key player who loomed over just about every step of pre-tournament preparations has been notably invisible: Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Pre-tournament fears that the American president would trample on the soccer jamboree have, so far, proved largely unfounded after the first two weeks of competition. Trump has yet to attend a match, and even as the U.S. team mounts its best World Cup performance in decades he has done little to claim the success as his own.<\/p>\n

Aside from persistent complications surrounding the Iran squad\u2019s entry and exit to the U.S. for games, and the ban on a Somali referee from entering the country before the tournament started, political incidents involving the Trump administration and soccer \u2014 or leaders of other World Cup countries, including the neighboring co-hosts with whom he often spars \u2014 have been few and far between.<\/p>\n

No ICE arrests around matches. No heavy-handed policing like soccer fans sometimes suffer in Western Europe. No beef between Trump and Democratic leaders of cities and states where some of the tournament\u2019s highest-profile matches have been played.<\/p>\n

As one European-based senior sports executive told Blue Light News last year about the administration and the World Cup, \u201cWhy would they want to f—k it up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the USMNT\u2019s opener against Paraguay in Los Angeles, while Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. \u2014 along with other senior Cabinet officials \u2014 was at the American match vs. Australia in Seattle. Though Trump himself hasn\u2019t been to a game yet, he did send the U.S. squad a message of support at the start of the tournament.<\/p>\n

In an interview last week with Blue Light News, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said her administration had worked with the U.S. government \u201caround transportation funding, security funding. That\u2019s the way it should be. There should be that kind of work and coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump allies are on the same page as the tournament progresses serenely through the group stage, beyond continued griping about high ticket prices and transport to and from some stadiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really good to see the coordination, certainly from a law enforcement perspective,\u201d said Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House\u2019s World Cup task force, as he praised cooperation with police and security services in blue states like New York, New Jersey and California, where the administration doesn\u2019t \u201cagree eye to eye with the mayors and the governors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to see moments where the country can come together as well, and I think this is one of those great moments over our 250th birthday where that can happen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

This week, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino confirmed what many have expected<\/a>: Trump plans to attend the final on July 19 and help present the winner’s trophy. Can a president who loves the spotlight stay away til then?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of soccer\u2019s biggest names have to come to play at the World Cup: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Erling Haaland, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior and now even Cristiano Ronaldo have left their mark on the score sheet. But one key player who loomed over just about every step of pre-tournament preparations has been notably invisible: Donald Trump. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}