The 2026 Trade War World Cup captures our new nativist world order
Hostile Trade Policy
The USA has declared punitive tariffs against dozens of countries, including co-host nations Canada and Mexico, causing a global stock market crash, and potential conflicts with sponsors and suppliers.
Thanks to Donald Trump and his determination to pursue economic armageddon against the US’s co-hosts, Canada and Mexico, the tone for the 2026 World Cup is being set not by Shakira or an anthropomorphic keffiyeh but by reciprocal tariffs, a flurry of cross-border insults, and crumbling diplomatic relations between the host nations. On Tuesday, Trump confirmed that the US will begin imposing levies on most imports from Canada and Mexico; Canada immediately retaliated, and Mexico looks set to follow.
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there’s plenty of time for the deterioration in diplomatic relations between the co-hosts to give way to reconciliation. But as things stand today, with Trump and his cabinet lackeys apparently hellbent on trashing the global economy and humiliating traditional allies, that hope seems pretty remote. The US – which is due to host 75% of the matches during the 2026 tournament, and every fixture from the quarter-finals onwards – looks set to steam into the approaching World Cup with a spirit of hospitality roughly equivalent to Roy Keane sizing up Alf-Inge Haaland’s knee.
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Corruption & Abuses
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Fifa did not exactly have much integrity to begin with, but the scale of its leader’s prostration is extraordinary. So completely has Infantino debased himself that after he witnessed Trump describe Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “dictator” at a recent event in Miami, he immediately praised his American host for promoting a message of “peace and unity”.
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The damage being done to what’s left of both the global order and Fifa’s credibility may be so severe that future World Cups will unfold amid a cold war-style atmosphere of mutual suspicion and sabotage. Certainly, there is nothing in the choice of Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 tournament to suggest the World Cup’s imminent liberation from the game of global power, which is becoming more nakedly nativist and zero-sum with each passing week.
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Border Enforcement
Visitors to the USA may encounter issues processing visas or increased scrutiny at border crossings. In some cases, travelers have been detained by ICE for weeks at a time.
Trump wrote to Fifa during his first term, while the bids for 2026 were under assessment, to reassure officials that there would no travel bans or other restrictions in place during the tournament, and that “all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination.” That pledge is already at risk thanks to Elon Musk’s incineration of the federal government, which has led to massive blowouts in visa processing times and could leave many fans unable to enter the US.
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