We are a third of the way into the 2026 World Cup, and the unequivocal message that the Trump administration is transmitting is that the US government is an openly racist entity. The United States refused entry to Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, subjecting him to an 11-hour interrogation before ejecting him from the country. In an act of performative security theater, players and staff from Uzbekistan were met with drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors upon arrival. US Customs and Border Patrol also detained Iraqi soccer star Aymen Hussein at O’Hare airport and questioned him for seven hours before allowing him into the country. Then there’s the Trump administration’s preposterous treatment of Iran, whose soccer team the United States has forced to stay in Mexico even though all its group-stage matches are in the United States. In response, the team’s coach, Amir Ghalenoei, stated, “Our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup.”

Enter the Department of Homeland Security, which made two racist posts on X. In one, DHS features the catchphrases, “DEFEND THE HOMELAND” and “ONE NATION. ONE HOMELAND. ONE TEAM.” If that sounds like something a Nazi might write, it’s because it is. The phrasing echoes the “One People, One Realm, One Leader” slogan that Nazis used during World War II: “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer.”

The apparent Nazi homage is superimposed over the images of three US players celebrating in front of a stadium full of jubilant fans. Turns out, those three players—Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards, and Sergiño Dest—are curious choices. Balogun was born in the United States to Nigerian parents living in London who were visiting New York. He has birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, something Trump has targeted for elimination through executive order. Chris Richards has tattoos honoring Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Martin Luther King Jr., and has exalted the importance of Juneteenth. Sergiño Dest was born in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and a father who is Surinamese American, and became a naturalized US citizen.

The second offensive post is meant to honor the US Men’s National Team’s 2–0 win over Australia. It featured the team posing in the classic two-row, pre-match formation while behind them DHS photoshopped the rust-colored US-Mexico border wall between the team and the goal. The text reads, “TOTAL DOMINATION” and “Nothing is getting past Team USA,” with the words “BUILT THE WALL” beneath the team. (The tweet disappeared by Saturday evening.)

Of course, DHS’s sophomoric white nationalism doesn’t mention the fact that of the 26 members of the US World Cup squad, six were born abroad. Or that nearly half of the players have immigrant or diasporic roots. This is blunt-force right-wing ideology in action, after all.

The Trump administration is shamelessly folding the US World Cup team into its propaganda, fashioning US players into de facto ambassadors for anti-immigrant hate. I reached out to both FIFA and US Soccer for comment, but neither replied.

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One might expect the US coach to step up in a moment like this, but Mauricio Pochettino is friendly with Javier Milei, the right-wing ideologue president of Argentina. This week, Pochettino mugged for the camera alongside an Irvine police officer and his DARE Cybertruck. And Pochettino has made it clear that he’d be more than happy to have Trump be part of the World Cup trophy celebration, should the US pull off a miracle: “I will give him the trophy, and he can lift the trophy for sure, no problem for me.”

Trump has made a habit of turning the world’s best footballers into MAGA wallpaper. He hosted Cristiano Ronaldo at the garish state dinner for Mohammed bin Salman in November 2025. (Ronaldo, it must be said, returned the favor, posting on Instagram a photo of Trump, himself, and his wife, Georgina Rodríguez.)

In March 2026, Trump hosted Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF at the White House to commemorate the team’s 2025 MLS Cup victory. Messi entered the room with the president as “Hail to the Chief” played, joining his teammates behind Trump as the president rambled for nearly eight minutes, blathering about the war that the United States and Israel were raging on Iran, threatening Cuba, and boasting about the invasion of Venezuela.

Before that, Trump brought to the White House players and staff from Italian club Juventus FC amid the hubbub of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. With players standing behind and around him, Trump prattled on about the invading Iran, bragged about his racist travel bans, and wondered aloud whether the US Civil War could have been avoided. He also went on a virulent anti-trans rant, asking players their views on transgender women athletes.

The question is not if but when we can expect the next spasm of Trumpian xenophobia at this World Cup.

And where has FIFA president Gianni Infantino been while DHS has been using the USMNT to its political advantage? Infantino has stated that this tournament would be “the most inclusive World Cup ever,” adding, “and we want it to be, and we have to be, inclusive.” The rhetoric emerging from Trump’s DHS is anything but.

Perhaps Infantino is too busy running interference for his sportswashing BFF. When the United Nations criticized FIFA for its acquiescence in the face of Trump’s exclusionary immigration policies, Infantino responded by saying soccer fans just needed to “chill and relax.” Recently, the FIFA honcho said, “I have a great relationship with President Trump. Without his engagement it would have been impossible to organize a World Cup in the United States.”

There is always the possibility that a US World Cup player could speak out. After all, numerous members of the team highlighted the symbolic importance of playing a match on Juneteenth on an Instagram post by US Soccer, a holiday that Trump fails to acknowledge in public and has even criticized as one of a number of “non-working holidays” that “is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.” To be sure, challenging the president in public would come with serious blowback, and no player should do so unless they are ready and willing to deal with it.

But back in 2019, US Women’s National Team superstar Megan Rapinoe did just that. She stood up for her principles and publicly feuded with the big orange bully. The result? The USWNT won the World Cup, and Rapinoe walked away with both the Golden Boot for top scorer and the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament. The World Cup is where icons are made, and Rapinoe reminds us that legendary status can arrive through courage both on and off the field.