With FIFA scandal, Trump informs the world that cheating will 'make America great again'

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The president asked the head of FIFA to reverse a red card issued against the American team's star player. Folarin Balogun was supposed to sit out today's game against Belgium, but Donald Trump called in a favor to FIFA's Gianni Infantino. Now Balogun is going to play.

"The reversal is highly unusual," the Times said when it broke the news, "and is the first time since 1962 that FIFA has allowed a player to appear in a game when they would have been suspended after being sent off in the World Cup." The Athletic called it “one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the World Cup." Infantino, moreover, appears to have broken FIFA's own statutes, which state that FIFA's "participants must abide by political neutrality and political interference is not permitted in its processes," The Athletic said.

Trump cheated. But he didn't stop there. He also admitted to cheating.

He also suggested that if he didn't cheat, the US team would get cheated.

The US team now faces a choice. It can field its star player against Belgium, and thereby accept being made complicit in the president's corruption. Or it can bench Balogun, thereby rejecting Trump. One way risks defeat with honor. The other way risks victory in disgrace. Neither would satisfy anyone. In any case, no one expects Balogun to sit out the game.

It's "the dilemma all athletes face in dictatorships," Ian Ford wrote on Bluesky today, commenting on news of Trump's cheating. "If they win, the great leader gets all the credit. If they lose, they get all the blame. It's all about using sporting success as a way to embellish the myth of the great leader being the all-powerful figure who controls everything."

Trump's corruption didn't stop with the US team.

According to the Times, Trump accused the referee who showed Balogun a red card last week of being corrupt, therefore securing a corrupt outcome. That's going to send a chill all the way down, Ford suggested today. "Statements Trump made about the referee are going to influence any decisions that referees make in future matches. Why make a tough or unpopular call that will endanger your career or life knowing that Trump can get it reversed with a phone call, and knowing that FIFA will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat?"

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Belgium challenged the reversal, saying that red-card penalties were supposed to be irreversible. FIFA rejected the appeal today, clearing the way for Balogun. The US team is not expected to win the World Cup but any future tournament success has already been profaned. As Marty Longman said, "winning a match because the president manipulated the system isn’t a sports triumph; it’s a moral failure that taints everything that comes after it."

In the end, however, Donald Trump's corruption is a reflection of America. He is our president. This is our national team. If he and they accept cheating as a means to an end, that makes us a nation of cheaters, which makes us a nation of losers – no matter how much we may be "winning." The rest of the world has every right to remind us of that. And it is.

"Maybe you can live with the racism, the economic and social destruction, the pedo cover ups, the graft and corruption, the global disorder and chaos but can you really live with being sports cheats?" said David Bartlett, the former premier (governor) of Tasmania on Australian radio. "What has always been a deep post-World War II affection for the US from Australians has disintegrated ... I have loved my many trips and travels in the USA. If this post gets me thrown out at the border, so be it. Your president is a cheat. Your nation looks like cheats."

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I have said before that maga is welfare for losers. It creates a system by which mediocre men don't have to compete for jobs and money, women, social status or greatness. It encourages them to never grow up while glorifying their "manhood." But "these men can't live up to their stated ideals," I wrote. "They don't intend to try, because they don't believe in ideals. If they did, they would commit to improving themselves, as men, through greater skill, discipline and mastery in preparation for the moment when the truth about them will be revealed."

Folarin Balogun and the rest of Team USA are not frauds. They have done the work preparing for the moment when the truth about them will be revealed. But if they implicate themselves in the president's corruption, they will violate their stated ideals. They didn't start this, but they have the power to end it. Keep Balogun on the sidelines. Beat Belgium decisively. As the New York Daily News said in an editorial, "Trump can be a cheater and a rule breaker and Infantino can play along. But the US soccer players should rise above it and be sportsmen."

If they don't, maga will do more than lift up losers.

It will bring down winners, too.