Donald Trump arrives by helicopter to attend World Cup final alongside Gianni Infantino | World Cup 2026
Donald Trump took his place at the World Cup final held at the New Jersey Stadium in New York on Sunday.
Trump arrived at the stadium aboard Marine One, and the president’s helicopter flew over the stadium for the first time about 45 minutes before kickoff. There was little reaction from the crowd as the plane flew over the stadium, and Marine One landed nearby a few minutes later. Shortly before kick-off, the president sat with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in a glassed-in section of luxury seating on the west side of the stadium. Other dignitaries and former players were also seated nearby, including Spain’s king Felipe VI, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.
Trump has appeared at many sporting events since his re-election. Last year he attended the Super Bowl, the US Open and Daytona 500 in tennis and the Ryder Cup in golf. This year, he attended several golf events, the college football national championship game and Game 3 of the NBA finals, where he was greeted with boos from New York Knicks fans. Perhaps considering this reaction, organizers chose not to show Trump on the stadium’s video screens before the match.
Trump attended a game for the first time this summer at the World Cup, which the United States co-hosted with Canada and Mexico. He would also present the cup to the winner of the Spain-Argentina match. He was seen touching the cup from his seat in the first minutes of the match.
At the 2022 World Cup final, Qatar emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani joined Infantino to hand the trophy to Lionel Messi and his Argentine teammates. Vladimir Putin presented this award to Kylian Mbappé and France, who won the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Trump became the first US president to attend the World Cup final on his own soil. When the USA hosted the tournament in 1994, Trump’s predecessor Bill Clinton did not attend the match. The trophy was instead presented by Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore.
Trump was front and center at last summer’s Club World Cup final at the same stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where he presented the trophy to champions Chelsea and was loudly booed by the crowd.
Trump has a close relationship with Infantino and has called on the FIFA president to lobby for a review of US star Folarin Balogun’s controversial red card suspension ahead of the last 16 match. FIFA reversed Balogun’s ban, but the political circus cast a shadow over the U.S. team, which exited a promising World Cup with a loss to Belgium.
