Oval Office
2:52 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We very much appreciate the fact that we have won a very important event: the World Cup in 2026. And we’ll be hosting it along with Mexico and Canada. And it’s a very special event. I think it’s probably certainly one of the biggest, and maybe the biggest sporting event in the world.
And soccer has come such a long way. Soccer is a game — I guess you call it “football.” But, over here, maybe at some point, they’ll change the name. I’m not sure, but we’ll see.
MR. INFANTINO: Let’s see. Let’s see. We can negotiate that.
THE PRESIDENT: But it’s working very well either way. But I just want to thank Gianni Infantino for being here. He’s the president of FIFA and a highly respected man. In fact, when my son heard he was going to be here, he said, “Dad, I’d like to meet him.” So you’re pretty famous, right? Pretty important and pretty famous.
MR. INFANTINO: Yeah, it looks like it.
THE PRESIDENT: He likes — my son, Barron, loves soccer. And soccer has to be one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. And the job you’ve done is really fantastic, Gianni. So thank you very much.
And I want to also pay my respect to Carlos Cordeiro, who — as president, in this country, of soccer — has been incredibly instrumental in helping us to get the World Cup. And he’s worked so hard, so long. And they were calling me constantly to try to get me to come onboard, but it only took one call because when I heard “World Cup,” I wanted to do it.
And again, we want to thank you. It’s all signed up. It’s all set to go. And it’ll be a special event. I think it’s going to be something, really, very special.
And, Gianni, maybe I’d ask you to say a few words, and then Carlos.
MR. INFANTINO: Definitely. Well, thanks. Thanks, President, for welcoming us here. It’s a great honor to be here. And thanks for everything you are doing to support our sport as well. Obviously, 2026, the World Cup — biggest event — sporting event for sure, but probably even social event in the world.
We just had the World Cup in Russia. More than 4 billion viewers. The final only — over 1 billion viewers. It’s massive. It’s huge. So, in Russia, President, we said that you would organize the best World Cup ever. Right?
THE PRESIDENT: Right. Right.
MR. INFANTINO: And we did organize the best World Cup ever.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. INFANTINO: In the U.S., together with Canada and Mexico, we want to organize the greatest World Cup ever, if you agree.
THE PRESIDENT: Right, okay. Well, we’ll do it.
MR. INFANTINO: And for this, we will work together and do whatever we can to make sure that this be a fantastic event. But I’m looking very, very much forward — and the world is looking that much forward to that.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s very exciting. Everybody is talking about it, and it’s very exciting.
And Carlos.
MR. CORDEIRO: Well, Mr. President, thank you for hosting us today. For my part, for my federation — the U.S. Soccer Federation for the United Bid representing the U.S., Canada, and Mexico — we are really very honored. Very honored. Deeply honored to be hosting this event in 2026. It’s right around the corner. We have a lot for work to do, but we look forward to working with you and your administration.
Let me also thank you, Mr. President, for your help and support throughout the campaign — your written assurances and warranties. I think without out that we wouldn’t have won quite such a convincing victory. So thank you very much for that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Carlos. And I have to also thank Bob Kraft, who I know that you were working very hard with. Bob originally called me and he said, “What do you think of the idea of trying to get the World Cup to the United States?” And I said, “I think we really like it.” And then we got Canada, we got Mexico involved, and we’re going to have a great partnership. And it’s going to be very special. I look forward to it.
So let’s see, 2026 — I won’t be here. I won’t be here. Maybe they’ll extend the term because I know they’d love to see some — (laughter.) Because if they don’t extend —
MR. INFANTINO: With good reason.
THE PRESIDENT: — the media is going to be very boring. It’s going to be very boring. They’ll all be out of business, I guess.
But we will — we will be there and it will be a very, very important and a very special event.
And I think, also, having it in the United States is very important for soccer.
MR. INFANTINO: It is. It is.
THE PRESIDENT: Especially in light of the fact that soccer has done so well.
MR. INFANTINO: Yeah, and it’s growing.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it very much.
MR. CORDEIRO: Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
MR. INFANTINO: Mr. President, I have a little —
Q Mr. President, do you think Google should be investigated?
MR. INFANTINO: — I have a little thing for you. Can I give it to you first?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. I’d love that. Thank you.
MR. INFANTINO: Before the questions come.
Q I have a question for you, too.
MR. INFANTINO: Thank you.
Q Can I ask him a question?
MR. INFANTINO: Yeah.
Q So I want to know if you guys are discussing —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: What — excuse me. Excuse me.
MR. INFANTINO: One second.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you just hold it. Where are you from?
Q Brazil.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay.
MR. INFANTINO: Soccer country.
Q We have the best team in the world. (Laughter.)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Except it had a little problem last time.
Q A little bit.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay.
Q No fair. It wasn’t fair.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Let me stand up, Gianni.
MR. INFANTINO: And you are part of the FIFA team now.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s good. That’s good. Great. Thank you very much. That’s very nice.
MR. CORDEIRO: And if I could get the U.S. jersey.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. Wow, look at that.
MR. INFANTINO: And no less with the President’s name.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s pretty good. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. That’s really very nice.
MR. INFANTINO: And one more thing that could be useful for you. You know, in soccer, we have referees, right?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.
MR. INFANTINO: And they have cards. Yellow cards and red cards. Yellow card is a warning. And when you want to kick out someone — (inaudible). (Laughter.) Like this.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true. That’s true. Right? That’s very good.
MR. INFANTINO: So this could be useful. I don’t know.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I like that.
MR. INFANTINO: That’s for you.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I like that.
MR. CORDEIRO: The next media session.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you, Carlos. Congratulations.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Q (Inaudible) with Mexico about paying for the wall?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. The wall will be paid for very easily by Mexico. It will ultimately be paid for by Mexico.
Q Do you think that Google should be investigated?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I think Google has really taken advantage of a lot of people. And I think that’s a very serious thing, and it’s a very serious charge. I think what Google and what others are doing — if you look at what’s going on at Twitter, if you look at what’s going on in Facebook, they better be careful, because you can’t do that to people. You can’t do it.
We have tremendous — we have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in. And you just can’t do that. And so I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory. And they have to be careful. It’s not fair to large portions of the population.
Okay. Thank you very much everybody.
END
3:00 P.M. EDT
