{"id":305892,"date":"2025-10-15T17:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305892\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:23:09","slug":"trump-threatens-to-yank-world-cup-games-from-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305892\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump threatens to yank World Cup games from Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> on Tuesday threatened to relocate World Cup matches set to be played next year in suburban Boston, after suggesting that parts of the city had been \u201ctaken over\u201d by unrest. <\/p>\n

Foxborough, Massachusetts, home to the NFL\u2019s New England Patriots and about 30 miles from Boston, is set to stage matches as the U.S. cohosts the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Trump was asked about Boston\u2019s mayor, Michelle Wu, a Democrat whom he called \u201cintelligent\u201d but \u201cradical left.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe could take them away,\u201d Trump said of the World Cup games. \u201cI love the people of Boston and I know the games are sold out. But your mayor is not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggested \u201cthey\u2019re taking over parts of Boston\u201d without offering details, but added \u201cwe could get them back in about two seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has already deployed National Guard troops to Washington<\/a> and Memphis<\/a>, and efforts to do so in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, have sparked legal fights<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Wu\u2019s office did not react directly to Trump\u2019s threat, issuing a statement that read, \u201cBoston is honored and excited to host World Cup matches, and we look forward to welcoming fans from around the world to our beautiful city, the cradle of liberty and city of champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments came during his meeting with Argentina President Javier Milei and it wasn\u2019t immediately clear what he was referring to by parts of Boston having been seized. Earlier this month, however, there were multiple arrests in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest that turned violent<\/a> on Boston Common. Four police officers were injured. <\/p>\n

Trump has previously suggested he could declare cities \u201cnot safe\u201d for the 104-game soccer tournament and alter a detailed hosting plan that FIFA confirmed in 2022<\/a>. It includes games at NFL stadiums near New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

World Cup host sites aren\u2019t up to Trump. The 11 U.S. cities \u2014 plus three in Mexico and two in Canada \u2014 are contracted with FIFA, which would face significant logistical and legal issues to make changes in the eight months before the June 11 kickoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s FIFA\u2019s tournament, FIFA\u2019s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,\u201d the soccer body\u2019s vice president Victor Montagliani said earlier this month<\/a> at a sports business conference in London.<\/p>\n

Trump nonetheless said, \u201cIf somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there\u2019s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni \u2013 the head of FIFA who\u2019s phenomenal — and I would say, \u2018Let\u2019s move into another location\u2019 and they would do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president meant FIFA head Gianni Infantino, a close ally<\/a>. Trump said Infantino \u201cwouldn\u2019t love to do it, but he\u2019d do it very easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to relocate World Cup matches set to be played…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":305893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2731,1613,69,2034,6061,57,6072,1612,2739,2222,25255,9338,80,221,62,1817,67,132,68,155011,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-305892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-fifa","12":"tag-fifa-world-cup","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-gianni-infantino","15":"tag-latin-america","16":"tag-massachusetts","17":"tag-mexico","18":"tag-michelle-wu","19":"tag-national-football-league","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-soccer","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-sports-stories","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-victor-montagliani","28":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115379346422973975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}