Trump directly threatens Los Angeles with losing the World Cup and Olympic Games

I t's no secret that US President Donald Trump will look for every possible way to put his personal stamp on and politically exploit the two major sporting events his country will soon host: the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics . The fact that the organizations depend respectively on their own organizing committees and in the case of the Olympic Games the 'owner' of the Games is the International Olympic Committee is no problem for the former sports businessman.

Donald Trump has long used presidential prerogatives to pressure communities that refuse to follow his orders on issues such as immigration using arguments such as security. This was the argument used yesterday to point out that the city of Boston could be stripped of its status as host city. He also said that a similar measure could be taken against Los Angeles for the Olympic Games.

"We could take them away ," Trump said at an event also attended by Argentine President Milei . "Their mayor (Michelle Wu) is not good. She is radical left, and they are taking over parts of Boston." He acknowledged that the way to do this would be to pressure FIFA: "If someone is doing a bad job, and I feel that there are unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni [Infantino], the president of FIFA, who is phenomenal and we would tell him to take the headquarters somewhere else. He wouldn't like to do it, but he would do it."

Trump has also pointed out that other World Cup host cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco , "are run by radical left-wing lunatics who don't know what they're doing". According to 'Politico', while officials in the threatened cities say they are not worried about the president's threats, FIFA points out that the decision to control security standards rests with the government of the host nation.

He also stated that "if I thought Los Angeles was not going to be properly prepared, I would move it somewhere else if I had to," Trump said.

Los Angeles is considering measures to oppose the raids against illegal immigration being carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service under the president's orders. Thus, it is considering declaring a local state of emergency in Los Angeles County after a significant increase in arrests in neighborhoods with high Latino and Asian populations. The county could mobilize resources, establish temporary shelters, coordinate free legal assistance and support affected families. According to the Los Angeles Times, this action is interpreted as a direct message to Trump's government.