Former U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team defender Alexi Lalas has recalled the in-person, R-rated advice he gave to Donald Trump about the FIFA 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. will host alongside Mexico and Canada next summer.
“This is on our watch, and so let’s not fuck it up,” the Trump voter, who represented the U.S. when it hosted the soccer tournament last in 1994, said he told the president during a White House World Cup task force meeting.
“It’s going to reflect on us as just a nation and it’s going to reflect on President Trump. And so he has a vested interest in it going well,” Lalas said, explaining why he made his comments to the president in a Politico interview published this week.
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Elsewhere in the lengthy interview, Lalas acknowledged that Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda and immigration raids could prove problematic and keep some supporters from abroad away, although he also appeared to cast doubt on the reality of the situation.
“I mean, look at the perception that people have of where America is right now, as we’re talking about it, less than a year away from the World Cup. While I can disagree with that perception, it doesn’t mean that it’s not valid and it’s not out there in terms of the way people view the United States,” he said.
“If what they are seeing, what they are reading, turns them off from taking that vacation through the World Cup, that is a problem,” he added. “I want to try to change that perception to the extent that I can. If you want to support your country and you want to support your team, and you pass the vetting process, you are going to have a wonderful time. And then hopefully that message is brought back and so we can start to change some of that perception out there. But I’m not denying the fact that there are negative perceptions of what America is right now out there.”
Read the full interview at Politico.
