{"id":11020,"date":"2026-07-20T01:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11020"},"modified":"2026-07-20T01:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:02:39","slug":"trump-praises-lionel-messi-before-world-cup-final-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11020","title":{"rendered":"Trump Praises Lionel Messi Before World Cup Final Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President <\/span><b>Donald Trump <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was asked for his World Cup final prediction during a Sunday pre-match interview with Fox\u2019s <\/span><b>Jenny Taft<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, right before Argentina and Spain kicked off in New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The president said he didn\u2019t want to pick a side\u2026 but he also couldn\u2019t see himself putting money on Spain, considering Argentina had legend <\/span><b>Lionel Messi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> leading the way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI knew you were gonna ask, I thought about it a lot\u2026 I hate to get involved, even though politically it doesn\u2019t matter so much. The head of Argentina is a friend of mine, he\u2019s done a terrific job,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut I would say that it\u2019s hard to bet against Messi.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He praised <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-shows-true-colors-pre-world-cup-final-message\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Messi <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a bit more, saying he made an \u201cexactly perfect\u201d pass in Argentina\u2019s comeback win against England in the semi-final.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat was perfect. If you had a strike zone, it was exactly where it had to be,\u201d Trump added. \u201cI won\u2019t pick sides, I just think it\u2019s very hard to bet against Messi.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump spoke to Fox before attending the final match.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0It has been a busy World Cup for the president, with Trump notably calling FIFA boss <strong>Gianni Infantino<\/strong> to overturn a controversial red card on USA striker\u00a0<strong>Folarin Balogun<\/strong>. FIFA canceled the red card, but it ultimately didn\u2019t matter; the U.S. got smoked 4-1 by Belgium in the next game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Still, Trump applauded Infantino for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/sports\/trump-praises-fifa-boss-for-canceling-controversial-balogun-red-card-great-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the \u201cgreat decision\u201d<\/a> during an event on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qualified qualified-1\">\u201cProbably the most unforgettable is when they gave a gentlemen \u2014 is it a red card? And I was forced to call Gianni and just make a recommendation,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump then gritted his teeth and feigned like he was irate when he called the FIFA president. \u201cI said Gianni, I\u2019d like to make a recommendation \u2014 LET THE GUY IN THE GAME!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cNo I didn\u2019t say that. I said I\u2019d like to wage a complaint. And actually, I had no idea [the call would be reversed].\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Argentina-Spain match started at 3:00 p.m. ET on Fox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watch above.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump was asked for his World Cup final prediction during a Sunday pre-match interview with Fox\u2019s Jenny Taft, right before Argentina and Spain kicked off in New York City. The president said he didn\u2019t want to pick a side\u2026 but he also couldn\u2019t see himself putting money on Spain, considering Argentina had legend&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-2026-07-19T115753-695.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}