Trump Gets Instant Karma with World Cup in Crisis Mode

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2:32Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has turned the World Cup into an absolute disaster when it comes to ticket sales. FIFA is now facing empty seats as 180 ,000 World Cup tickets hit the resale market. Additionally, FIFA booked tens of thousands of hotel rooms in cities hosting games like Kansas City, where we're seeing cancellations of up to 75 % like in Kansas City, where the demand is not there. We've seen the World Cup working with Donald Trump engage in heinous visa restrictions against referees and fans and team officials. We've been talking about how the Somalian referee Omar Artan, who's like the top African referee, he was banned from the United States.

3:25Ben Meiselas:He flew into the U.S. and he was turned away. I mean, we're talking about like a world-renowned referee simply because he's from Somalia and Donald Trump and the Trump regime are a bunch of racists who hate Somalians. They wouldn't let the Somalian referee into the country. Also, in the past 24 hours, we learned that the Trump regime revoked the ticket allocation for the Iranian team, saying that Iran is not allowed to have any tickets to give out to their fans because that would be a violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. and Iran might utilize the tickets to promote terrorism inside the United States.

4:09Ben Meiselas:You've seen how the Trump regime treated the Senegalese, the team from Senegal, when they arrived. I mean, the Trump regime gave them basically cavity searches and read them the riot act and just treated them like absolute crap. When it came to the Uzbekistan team, when they showed up, we're talking about World Cup winning coaches and players and world-class players, formerly Italy captain, being searched like they're suspected drug mules simply because they're from Uzbekistan. Now, in the past 24 hours, you had Andrew Giuliani, who is now, he has been heading all FIFA operations in the United States.

4:54Ben Meiselas:He's Rudy Giuliani's kid. He spoke with the Atlantic Castle, sorry, the Atlantic Council, And they were asking him about the decision to deny the Somali referee Omar Artan entry for the United States to be a referee here. And he goes, it was for very good reason. We want to avoid bad actors, basically implying that Omar Artan is like a terrorist. I mean, that's the level of racism we're dealing with here. Here, play this clip. There's a lot of talk abroad about how the United States blocking the entry of referees from Africa, Iranian coaching staff, national team fans. What are the actual reasons for these measures?

5:38And is it a bureaucratic error? Sure. We'll take these one by one. So there's been one referee who has not been admitted. And I can't go into the details. What I can tell you high level is it was for very good reason. I support that decision. I was speaking directly with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of CBP on Sunday. The days are blending together a couple of days ago on this. And it was for very good reason that ultimately this referee did not get in the country. So only one referee, not multiple.

6:14Ben Meiselas:And then when it came to the other officials and managers and press members who have been denied travel to the United States, this is at an unprecedented level. I mean, when we talk about the World Cup in Russia, when we talk about the World Cup in Qatar, they didn't do this stuff. The Trump regime is like next level repressive and authoritarian. Andrew Giuliani was asked about some of the officials, managers, members of the press who were denied from other countries. Here's what he has to say. Play this clip. We've had 35 teams that have come into the United States. No players, no coaches have been denied.

6:56There have been some officials that have been denied and for good reason. Again, we're striking that balance between making sure that any bad actors that come into the country or try to come into the country under the guise of the World Cup will not get access to the United States of America.

7:10Ben Meiselas:You hear what he says, what, that other countries are shipping in their terrorists with the World Cup team. I mean, this is such authoritarian clownish behavior. And here he is when he's asked about why you denied the Iranian football team their ability to have their coaches and managers and staff and others who are part of the team show up. Andrew Julin is like, I can't tell you everything I know, but basically they were a bunch of terrorists. Basically what he says here, play this clip. Iranian coaching staff, all the Iranian coaching staff is coming in. There are some Iranian officials that are not coming in again for very good reason.

7:51Can't get into the to the particular particulars on that. But as you can imagine, there are some people that claim that they are coaches that may not be coaches. And for the national team, all 31 players have had their visas issued. Twenty six plus the five additional players as well. They're going to be able to come into the country the day before their match. They're basing in Tijuana, which is about a 25 minute flight to Los Angeles. So it'll be a real quick flight for them to be able to to get up there. If they were to drive up L.A., it might take eight hours. So I definitely recommend that they end up flying.

8:33But but they'll be able to get in. Look, the president has been clear on this one. And Secretary Rubio, I know, has made multiple public statements just in the last six weeks on this one that he wants to make sure. that they have every opportunity to compete on a level playing field here, while also making sure that people that are directly working, let's say, with the IRGC have no ability to access the United States of America. And we are completely supportive of that.

9:01Ben Meiselas:May I just show you for a second the difference between how Mexico is greeting teams when they arrive versus how the United States greets a team like Senegal when it arrives? Here, replay this clip right here.

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10:33Ben Meiselas:And I'm hearing that the Senegalese team really wants to boycott at this point, the world cup at the, you know, they're, they're one of the best teams in Africa, one of the best teams out there right now. And, you know, I I'm hearing the team members want to stand in solidarity with the Somalian referee, uh, Omar Artan to show African unity against, you know, FIFA's like, we're open to everybody, FIFA for everybody. Well, now Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump are clearly not making it for everybody. And they're making this experience absolutely horrible. Going back to where I started on this with the ticket sales.

11:13Ben Meiselas:So 180 ,000 tickets still available. And get this, the tickets to the United States Paraguay game, there were still thousands of tickets available for the U.S. game. So if you're like, well, there aren't ticket sales for the Iran game or this game, okay? There aren't ticket sales. There are still tickets available, rather, for U.S. versus Paraguay. If you can't sell out right away the U.S. game in the United States, there's something seriously going wrong. And then you have the Trump regime already pre-blaming Europe and the WHO, the World Health Organization for Ebola outbreaks in the United States.

11:55Ben Meiselas:Here's how Alex Eisenstadt of Axios puts it. Trump administration pre-blames Europe for any World Cup Ebola. The Trump administration fearing that international travel could accelerate the spread of Ebola as the World Cup hits America is pressuring Europe to dramatically shift its strategy for preventing infection, sources tell Axios. Top Trump aides are frustrated with Europe's limited travel restrictions and wanted to abandon the World Health Organization's Ebola playbook in favor of Washington's rules. They say it's tighter rules. No, but you pulled out of the World Health Organization. So the Trump regime claims that the WHO, which the United States pulled out of, the Trump pulled the US out of the WHO, but now we blame the WHO for which we pulled out of, claiming the WHO failed to immediately report the outbreak and misled the world by not encouraging countries to impose travel bans and broader closures.

12:56Ben Meiselas:Okay, so the United States was a leading member of WHO. You pulled out and now you want to blame the WHO for the work that you claim the WHO wasn't doing? That's how pathetic this Trump regime is. It's like when they blame Biden for the screw worm outbreak when the Trump regime cut screw worm detection. You cut Ebola detection. You gutted the CDC. You gutted USAID. You removed the US from the WHO and Ebola detection. And they're like, well, Biden did. No, Biden didn't do it. You are doing it. You're the one doing it all. Let me share with you what we're learning about Iran and Iran's team not getting its normal allocation.

13:39Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip right here. in the history of the world cup i'm not aware of of anything like this happening certainly not in recent tournaments this morning that their entire allocation of tickets had been removed um and you know that's after people have spent a huge amount of money to travel to get to games and iranians on the ground who have bought the tickets who can't get there you know and it's a huge sporting disadvantage for one of the teams to not be allowed to have any fans in there so So it was a shocking development. FIFA have eventually said after a long time today that they are talking to Iran to try to find a way around this.

14:17And it seems to be a U.S. government issue. And there's some talk that it's to do with financial controls rather than visa issues or anything like that. But no one's saying clearly from the U.S. government why this has happened. We all knew that Iran in the U.S. was going to be troublesome. or problematic because of what's going on in the world but uh it this is it in action i guess and you know extraordinarily one of fifa's referees one of the best referees in africa was turned away and sent home to somalia because he he's he wasn't given the visa i mean and fifa have just said nothing to do with us that's all down to the government i mean it's extraordinary this is one of the world's best referees coming to the world cup and they said no you can't come in it's just, it's head shaking really.

15:10Ben Meiselas:And while fans are suffering, while football or in the US, soccer is suffering, what's Donald Trump doing with FIFA? Well, as the New York Times reported earlier, for the past year, FIFA has leased an office on the 17th floor of New York Trump Tower that has sat all but empty. The rent goes to Donald Trump's family business, But soccer officials say the space sits largely idle. More corruption, more direct payments being funneled directly to Donald Trump and Trump's family for a fake idle office or so it seems from this article. The article by the New York Times is called a years long effort to woo Trump culminates with the World Cup.

15:56Ben Meiselas:Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, has unabashedly quartered the president's favor. Soccer officials privately ask, who really benefits? Answer, Donald Trump financially, Gianni Infantino financially, but clearly not the game. For the past year, FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, has leased an office on the 17th floor of New York Trump Tower. That is set all but empty. The rent goes to Trump's family business. But soccer officials say the space sits largely idle. Paying rent to Trump was the choice of Gianni Infantino, FIFA's president, who has made being close to Trump his top priority.

16:33Ben Meiselas:He's lavished the president with praise, trophies, and a medal, making pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and even the Melania documentary premiere. And it goes on to say, Mr. Infantino failed to woo the Biden administration, former government officials said, but he found a receptive ear in Trump who calls him the king of soccer. A decade ago, soccer executives were terrified to travel to the United States, fearing they'd be arrested for corruption. Now, Mr. Infantino is an Oval Office regular. Corruption marry corruption. Now, also, the costs of everything are accelerating. Obviously, the ticket prices are now subject of a criminal and civil investigation by many state attorneys general for inflating these ticket prices and screwing over the fans.

17:21Ben Meiselas:But also very basic travel right now is like unaffordable, like a very basic subway ride from like that that runs pretty short. You're talking about 80 bucks, 120 bucks. You see the cities that are hosting the World Cup are now saddled with this burden and have massive deficits. The cities are getting crushed. And Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump are like, we're going to make you so rich. and now the cities are suffering and they have to make up the money. They want FIFA to pay and subsidize the delta between what the travel is now going to cost the cities that have to be passed on to consumers, kind of like tariffs.

18:03Ben Meiselas:It's kind of like a tariff, if you will. So the cities want FIFA to pay the tariff, in essence, and FIFA wants to impose the costs on the city when FIFA said, you're all going to get so rich. And not only are they not getting rich, the demand right now for tourism in the cities hosting the World Cup is less than it would be in a prior year without the World Cup. Demand is down year over year because no one wants to travel to the United States with ICE and Border Patrol threatening everybody, with the United States attacking immigrants. No one wants to show up. everything Trump touches dies. And I think this is a perfect example of it right here.

18:48Ben Meiselas:We'll keep you posted as we learn more. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thank you.