It Ended As It Should Have

The USMNT made a nice run in the World Cup, but exited at the right time.

Jul 07, 2026

I’m OK with this.

Pretty sure the rest of the world is, too. The result wasn’t a surprise; how it came about was unexpected. It was also far less satisfying (here in the US) and maybe more so everywhere else. I gotta admit, when the news broke, I initially thought that this could have been like when Trump took credit for getting Steve Hilton into the California gubernatorial runoff. He had nothing to do with it, but he took the credit. But that’s not how it happened. To recap:

When the U.S. beat Bosnia and Herzegovina last Wednesday, hopes were high that this was the year the men’s national team would break out of being a perpetual second-level squad and finally start competing with the best the rest of the world had to offer. The fly in that ointment was that during the match, forward Folarin Balogun, the team’s top scorer, received a red card, making him ineligible for Monday’s game. The US still had a chance, playing at home and against a Belgian squad that, despite being ranked in the Top 10 by FIFA, was having an uninspiring tournament. With only one win and two ties in their group, they were still favored over the US, but barely.

On Thursday, Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino. They’ve been best buds for almost a decade. FIFA is widely considered to be deeply corrupt, operating with a long, documented history of racketeering, wire fraud, and systemic bribery. If FIFA were a person, its name would be…Donald Trump.

And to everyone’s surprise, FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee made an announcement, saying that they’d modified their ruling. Balogun would be allowed a year-long probation, which would enable him to play on Monday. Perhaps “surprise” isn’t the right word here; US fans were overjoyed while the rest of the world was pissed as hell. The overturning of the ruling was unprecedented; yes, it had happened once before (in 1962), but in that case, it was someone else’s president who asked FIFA to change their minds.

Then, on Monday night, they played the game, and, with eight billion new fans behind them, Belgium crushed the USA, 4-1. It was the Americans’ worst performance in this tournament by far, and Belgium looked far different, too…almost as if something made them mad as hell and they decided to fight on the field rather than on social media.

Though they made sure their mocking of the Trump “two-fisted jerk-off dance” at the end of the game made it to video damn near everywhere.

You can argue that the red card penalty should never have been issued, and you’d not get much argument from me or many others; you can also argue that Trump should never have been involved, and ditto. We can only speculate if the result would have been different on the field.

But certainly his interjection of himself into another arena where he doesn’t belong, calling for the rules to be suspended on his say-so, cements his reputation around the world as a first-class, A-1, POS. The result also reinforces his “anti-Midas” touch wherever he intercedes (see: Knicks, NY or Freedom 250 Festival). If they haven’t already retired the #ETTD meme yet, haul it out and use it here.

And we mean everything.

Meanwhile, the drama of the World Cup continues (see: Argentina/Egypt). As it should. Your thoughts?

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?