{"id":9657,"date":"2026-07-18T15:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9657"},"modified":"2026-07-18T15:00:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:00:58","slug":"trump-praises-fifas-gianni-infantino-for-canceling-red-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9657","title":{"rendered":"Trump Praises FIFA&#8217;s Gianni Infantino for Canceling Red Card"},"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>President <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> applauded FIFA boss <strong>Gianni Infantino<\/strong> on Friday for making a \u201cgreat decision\u201d when he canceled the controversial red card against USA striker <strong>Folarin Balogun<\/strong> earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said the move \u2014 which followed the president calling Infantino to lobby on the player\u2019s behalf \u2013 was a standout moment from an \u201cunforgettable\u201d World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\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 during an event in New York City to celebrate the tournament.<\/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>Trump\u2019s decision to call Infantino became a huge news story and led to a lot of gripes. <em>Washington Post<\/em> opinion writer <strong>Kate Andrews\u00a0<\/strong>warned Trump\u2019s lobby would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/wapo-journo-warns-on-ms-now-trump-calling-fifa-will-sabotage-team-usa-winning-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">make it seem \u201cunfair\u201d<\/a> if the US beat Belgium on July 6. MS NOW anchor <strong>Katy Tur\u00a0<\/strong>went even further, arguing Trump\u2019s call made Americans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/ms-now-star-complains-trump-made-usa-look-like-cheaters-in-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201clook like cheaters.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The yanked red card ultimately didn\u2019t matter much, with the U.S. soccer squad getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/match\/_\/gameId\/760507\/belgium-united-states\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">smoked 4-1 by Belgium<\/a> on July 6.<\/p>\n<p>Trump on Friday said Infantino\u2019s decision was still a wise one, because it made sure there was no debate the best team won.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was so much better the way it worked out, because there\u2019s no controversy. They won the game and our team had all of its players,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou made another great decision, if you think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s kudos came as both he and Infantino traded compliments during the Friday press conference. The president also found time to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/trump-mocks-england-for-blowing-world-cup-game-got-to-be-a-little-offensive-right\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mock England<\/a> for blowing its 1-0 lead against Argentina and declared the record-setting TV viewership proved the U.S. was now an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/sports\/trump-boasts-usa-has-morphed-into-a-soccer-country-during-glowing-event-with-fifa-boss\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">official \u201csoccer country.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Watch above via Fox News.<\/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 applauded FIFA boss Gianni Infantino on Friday for making a \u201cgreat decision\u201d when he canceled the controversial red card against USA striker Folarin Balogun earlier this month. Trump said the move \u2014 which followed the president calling Infantino to lobby on the player\u2019s behalf \u2013 was a standout moment from an \u201cunforgettable\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9658,"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-2026-07-17T180744-448.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9657","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\/9657","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=9657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}