USMNT Faces Political Crossroads After Trump Award Controversy at FIFA World Cup

Of course the U.S. men’s national team would like to avoid talking about politics at this summer’s FIFA World Cup.

But sometimes you play the cards you’re dealt. And by allowing president Donald Trump to nakedly claim the World Cup as his own toy, FIFA president Gianni Infantino will leave the Americans no choice but to actively show themselves as much larger than Trump's vision for the United States, or risk being seen as a political accomplice.

It was hardly unexpected after weeks of rumors. But the absurd sight of Infantino awarding Trump an inaugural FIFA Peace Prize — or was it the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence? — suggested Infantino will let Trump go even further in stamping his name on everything World Cup related this summer.

Why? Well, Infantino may be getting a loosening of potential travel restrictions and/or a blind eye to increasingly exploitative ticketing practices, and maybe other benefits we don't yet know about.

But for American stars like Christian Pulisic, who once celebrated a Concacaf Nations League goal by doing a supposedly non-political "Trump dance," this makes official a new reality in which all of the Americans' activities will be seen as political unless the USMNT actively distances itself from the president.

Those who insist otherwise are at best delusional, and at worst on board with the Trump administration’s most extreme ethno-nationalist aims.

One need only look at the makeup of the American national team program itself.

Two regular starters from 2022 in Qatar, Tim Weah and Yunus Musah, would not have been eligible in a version of America where Trump's desire to end birthright citizenship had been realized. Two more, Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest, likely would’ve never joined the American fold if it required renouncing dual citizenship, as envisioned in a current bill proposed by Ohio senator and Trump ally Bernie Moreno.

That’s to say nothing of Latin American talents and more recent USMNT revelations like Diego Luna, Cristian Roldan and Alejandro Zendejas, all hailing from families with the same backgrounds as those relentlessly targeted by enhanced immigration enforcement efforts, often despite citizenship or legal residency status.

And then there's manager Mauricio Pochettino, a native of Argentina, whose government has been provided with a reported $40-billion bailout by the administration that even some Trump supporters find objectionable.

Maybe the American squad doesn't have to embrace an overt political stance a la Tommie Smith in Mexico City or Colin Kaepernick in Santa Clara. In fact, that probably isn't the best move.

But neither can they ignore the inevitable questions about their president and his policy aims.

At the very least, it will be their duty to make clear they support a vision of America that makes the composition of their squad possible, and that they represent all American fans, not only the president's supporters.

Should they relinquish it, it will be hard to understand why the country should support a team constructed in a model the president ideologically opposes, and why some players should play for a flag and a country the administration believes shouldn't be theirs.