What did Donald Trump do today?

He watched a soccer game and then acted like he'd won it.

Trump had a leisurely Sunday as usual, but swapped playing golf for watching soccer, attending the FIFA Club World Cup. The event was a dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

During the playing of the national anthem, the stadium video screen showed a live shot of Trump, provoking loud boos. In and of itself, that's not so unusual—presidents are polarizing figures even when they're popular, and after almost six months back in office, Trump is anything but popular. In fact, the only time a president had lower approval ratings than Trump does at this point in his term was when it was Trump himself in 2017.

Trump was booed again during the presentation of the trophy to the winning Chelsea team, not so much for his presence on the stage, but for his inexplicable refusal to yield it to the athletes. A FIFA official tried in vain to get Trump to step aside for the announcement of the winners, but he wouldn't budge. Eventually, the official succeeded in herding him to the back of the crowd of athletes he'd been standing in front of, holding the trophy himself.

 

His popularity aside, there are serious doubts about whether Trump will be willing or even able to allow the World Cup to proceed as usual. Normally the World Cup is one of the biggest international tourism events there is, but Trump has made the United States a pariah for foreign visitors, with legal visitors from close U.S. allies experiencing harassment, detention, and summary deportation due to Trump's hyper-paranoid approach to immigration enforcement. Revenues from the tourism sector—normally one of the biggest American industries—have fallen off a cliff as a result. 

In particular, the United States now requires foreign visitors to turn over sensitive social media information for screening, and visa applicants can be rejected for "political activism" or "any hostility towards the government of the United States"—meaning, in practice, criticism of Trump personally.

It's already affecting sports: the Senegalese women's basketball team was denied entry last month because of Trump's "national security" policies. At least one major league baseball team is advising its players—citizens and noncitizens alike—to carry their passports with them, for fear that ICE will detain anyone with a Hispanic surname or accent. When a worried FIFA board raised the question of how to square this with hosting an international tournament at a meeting with Trump last month, he reportedly responded that “tensions are a good thing,” and uncertainty would "make it more exciting."

Why does this matter?

• Past a certain point, the need to be the center of attention becomes pathological. 

• It's stupid and self-destructive for the president to kneecap a major American industry for no reason.