Donald Trump wanted to play kingmaker at the World Cup. Instead, he got a front-row seat to an embarrassing defeat, and a flood of ridicule from across the internet.
The United States was knocked out of the FIFA World Cup on Monday after Belgium rolled to a convincing 4-1 victory in Seattle, ending the Americans’ tournament run just one day after Trump personally intervened to help star striker Folarin Balogun return to the lineup.
The controversy began after Balogun received a red card during the U.S. team’s Round of 32 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rather than serving the standard one-match suspension, Balogun was cleared to play after FIFA suspended the ban following an appeal from Trump, who acknowledged that he had personally lobbied FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
The unprecedented intervention sparked immediate backlash, with critics accusing FIFA of bending its own rules for political reasons.
Then came the match. Belgium dismantled the U.S. 4-1, turning what was supposed to be a triumphant return for Balogun into one of the biggest embarrassments of the tournament.
Trump didn’t exactly help himself before kickoff.
Speaking at the White House, the president joked that if Belgium won, he would claim the match was “rigged”—just as he continues to falsely insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
“If they beat us, they can be really proud,” Trump said. “The other way, if they beat us, we’ll say—I’ll say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020.”
After the crushing loss, social media wasted no time piling on.
California Sen. Alex Padilla mocked Trump in a video posted to X, calling the defeat another example of “the Trump effect.”
“He’s like the reverse Midas touch,” Padilla quipped. “Everything he touches turns to… you know what.”
Belgium’s players appeared to join the fun, celebrating with what many interpreted as an imitation of Trump’s signature dance after the final whistle.
The Belgian national team’s Instagram account piled on with a post showing Romelu Lukaku celebrating alongside the caption: “Overturn this.”
The anti-Trump group Republicans Against Trump joked that the president’s next move would be to slap Belgium with massive tariffs in retaliation for the loss, later escalating the joke by suggesting 12,000 percent tariffs.
Political commentator Spencer Hakimian also mocked Trump’s recent foreign policy rhetoric, joking on X: “JUST IN: Trump says Belgium is two weeks away from developing a nuclear bomb.”
Memes quickly spread across social media, including fake maps featuring a “Gulf of Belgium,” satirical artwork mocking the president, and jokes about Belgium’s national team’s nickname—the Red Devils.
Attorney Adam Cohen pointed out that Trump had recently attended a New York Knicks NBA Finals loss, suggesting the president’s streak of bad luck had continued.
“Everything. Trump. Touches. Dies,” Cohen wrote.
Even before the match began, critics argued Trump’s intervention had already damaged the credibility of the tournament.
Commentator Brian Krassenstein said any American victory would have been overshadowed by accusations that political pressure influenced FIFA’s decision.
Geopolitical analyst Cyrus Janssen called it a “lose-lose situation.”
“If we beat Belgium, the victory will be tainted because our president had to pressure FIFA,” Janssen wrote. “If we lose, then even our president cheating couldn’t help us win.”
While critics focused on Trump, other public officials chose to praise the American players.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the U.S. Men’s National Team for what he called an inspiring tournament run, while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the players “left it all on the field.”
As for Trump, he remained silent about the controversy following the defeat.
Despite spending much of the evening posting on Truth Social while traveling to a NATO summit in Turkey, the president made no public comment on the failed intervention that ended with the U.S. eliminated anyway.
If Trump’s goal was to change the outcome of the World Cup, it didn’t work.
What it did accomplish was giving critics one more example of what they describe as the “Trump effect.”
