A deafening boo united Argentine and Spanish fans for a few seconds last night. It happened at the moment when the presidents of the United States and FIFA, Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino, came down from the VIP box to present the trophy to Spain. The broadcast had avoided focusing on the president throughout the match, but it couldn’t dodge that bullet. The president and Infantino handed the World Cup to Rodri, the best player of the tournament. Unlike last summer at the Club World Cup, Trump stepped aside and did not steal the spotlight from the Spanish players, a country he has repeatedly disrespected over the past year.
Superstition led the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, to miss a historic final between Spain and Argentina yesterday. But his notable voluntary absence did not prevent his country’s defeat, nor did it overshadow a high-level and tense VIP box. Trump, attending a match at this World Cup for the first time, had to greet some of his geopolitical adversaries. Among them, he cordially and briefly shook hands with the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, with whom he has had numerous clashes over Spain’s military spending in the past year.
Representing the winning country were also King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, present in the photo of the leaders’ greeting, as well as Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía. The King had already traveled to Guadalajara (Mexico) for the match against Uruguay, although on that occasion Queen Letizia did not accompany him.
They were accompanied by the leaders of the other two co-host countries, Mark Carney of Canada and Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, two heads of government with whom Trump maintains a contentious relationship and against whom he imposed high tariffs as a pressure tool against immigration. Also present in the box was New York City Mayor, the socialist Zohran Mamdani, who, despite being ideologically opposite to the Republican, has earned his respect and admiration, unlike the representatives of the Democratic Party’s left wing.
The Republican followed the match seated next to the First Lady, Melania, and the FIFA president, his friend and ally Infantino. At all recent sporting events he has attended, the president has been booed by the crowds, but it seems FIFA wanted to avoid that yesterday. During the match, the broadcast barely showed the two leaders on screen for a second, when the national anthems finished playing. Not enough time to provoke a reaction from the audience.
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The president, a New Yorker who enjoys media attention, had his moment of glory after the match, when he went down to the field to give the golden trophy to Rodri. The scene was memorable, and not only on a sporting level. Spain has been the focus of some of Trump’s harshest criticisms and threats against his European allies over the past year. The president even said in October that Madrid should be “expelled” from NATO for being a “terrible and disloyal partner” by not committing to spending 5% of GDP on defense, breaking with the consensus of the transatlantic alliance.
Earlier this month, Trump met Sánchez in Ankara during the latest NATO summit and intensified his attacks. “Spain is a lost cause. We don’t want to do any business with Spain. I’d like to cut it off. Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. Cut all trade with Spain, please. Including visits. We don’t want anything to do with them. They are hopeless, bad people,” he said.
However, his opinion took a drastic turn a few hours later, when he said, after speaking with the Spanish president, that he was happy with Spain. “I must admit I had problems with Spain, and I still do, but today it completely redeemed itself. Spain was very generous today,” he said, noting that the country had committed to increasing its defense spending. Yesterday, they met again in the MetLife Stadium box, in a new and more relaxed episode of the personal soap opera between the two leaders.
The presence of so many dignitaries, at a match designated as a National Security Special Event, warranted enhanced security measures to enter the venue, which caused lines exceeding three hours in some cases, both for the press and fans. Secret Service personnel conducted individual body and bag searches, similar to those at an airport, for each of the 80,000 spectators, staff, volunteers, and journalists, so many of them could not enter the stadium before kickoff.
