- 7 weeks ago
President Trump announces that FIFA's 2026 World Cup drawing will happen in December at the Kennedy Center.
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00:00Thank you very much. We have a very big announcement to make today.
00:03You all know Johnny. He came all the way from Italy, the beautiful country of Italy, to be with us.
00:10He just got off the plane, and he's a hard-working guy, does a phenomenal job with FIFA.
00:15Nobody like him.
00:17I'm delighted to welcome FIFA President Johnny Infantino back to the White House
00:23for a major announcement about one of the most anticipated competitions in all of sports,
00:28the 2026, and this is a big deal, I'll tell you, I was so happy to get it, the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
00:37And it's going to be the World Cup, as we know it.
00:39It's the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess, Johnny, right?
00:44On December 5th of this year, the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw will take place at the Kennedy Center.
00:49Some people refer to it as the Trump Kennedy Center, but we're not prepared to do that quite yet,
00:54maybe in a week or so, but right here in Washington, D.C.
00:58It's a tremendous honor to bring the global event and this incredible group of people
01:03and these unbelievable athletes, the best athletes in the world,
01:06to the cultural center of our nation's capital.
01:09I just left the Kennedy Center.
01:11We're spending a lot of money wisely on making it really beautiful.
01:15It's going to be beautiful again.
01:16And it's like Washington, D.C.
01:19We had, by the way, in Washington, D.C., we have the lowest crowd numbers they've had in years.
01:25Zero, it sounds like it's a horrible thing to say, but I might as well say it,
01:29zero murders in the last week since we've done this.
01:33That's the first time in memory that that's happened.
01:36You can believe it, how pathetic that is to have to even say it.
01:40And I'm tired of listening to these people say how safe it was before we got here.
01:44It was unsafe, it was horrible, and Mayor Bowser better get her act straight
01:48or she won't be mayor very long because we'll take it over with the federal government,
01:52running like it's supposed to be run.
01:54The numbers were horrible.
01:56There was a crime-infested rat hole, and they do have a lot of rats.
02:01We're getting rid of them, too, and we've made a lot of progress.
02:05And it was extremely unsafe, and now it's extremely safe.
02:09We had virtually no crime.
02:11The number was down 87%, and I'm trying to figure out where was the 13%
02:16because I don't think it existed.
02:19The National Guard has been unbelievable, and they're working with the police,
02:23and they have some very good people in there.
02:25They have some people that shouldn't be police, actually,
02:28but they have some great people there.
02:30And Washington, D.C. is a whole different place,
02:33and Johnny, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that, too, actually.
02:36Oh, yes.
02:37But it's a whole different place.
02:38People are excited again.
02:39They're going out to restaurants again.
02:42That was the other thing I saw in numbers.
02:44That restaurant business is down in the last week.
02:47No, no.
02:47Restaurant business, you can't get into a restaurant.
02:50Just really lying people.
02:52And that's why people don't understand how bad and how dishonest the press is.
02:56I saw one poll that had us at 19% favorable on what we're doing with Washington.
03:04Then I saw another one that says it's 94% favorable.
03:07And I can tell you the 94% is correct.
03:10The others are fake, just fake news.
03:12They've got to get their act together.
03:14So bad for our country.
03:15So sick, actually.
03:17So Washington, D.C. is really doing unbelievably well.
03:20And the Kennedy Center that we're fixing, I was just there all morning with contractors.
03:25We're making it unbelievable.
03:26It's going to be unbelievable.
03:27It's got great bones, but it needs a lot of work.
03:30The World Cup draw will set up the group stage of competition.
03:3548 teams will play in 104 games across 16 North American cities from Seattle to Vancouver to Atlanta to Miami.
03:43It's going to be so exciting for our country.
03:45The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be one of the largest and most complex events.
03:51This will be one of the greatest events.
03:53In a way, it's like Johnny said it better.
03:55It's like having many Super Bowls in a short period of time.
03:59Because each one of these games essentially is a Super Bowl.
04:02Some of them are bigger than Super Bowls, actually.
04:05But they're essentially, each one of these games is like a Super Bowl.
04:08The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the largest, most complex set of events in sports history.
04:16And the Kennedy Center will give it a phenomenal kickoff and we'll be involved.
04:21And they'll be working over there for quite a bit of time.
04:23We have it all set that they can stay there for the big events, the big press conferences and everything else.
04:28And they'll be in a very safe capital.
04:30That'll be nice.
04:30You don't have to worry about walking down the street, Johnny, okay?
04:33But you could handle yourself.
04:35I could.
04:35Already, FIFA is projecting six million loyal fans will attend the World Cup events next year.
04:41And six billion more are going to be watching back home.
04:44And they think the six billion dollar number is going to be actually a low number.
04:48And this will drive more than 30 billion dollars into the U.S. economy and create 185,000 American jobs in a short period of time, too.
04:58No sporting event attracts more attention, more fans, more viewers, or more revenue than the FIFA World Cup.
05:03And, again, I'll just say it's the World Cup, and it's the biggest thing there is in sports, and we have it.
05:09And I got it in my first administration, and I was really somewhat devastated, as devastated as I can be.
05:15I don't have time to get too devastated.
05:16I was very happy that today, as you saw, the group that does this, a government group, radical left group, announced that Trump was right, took in $4 trillion worth of tariffs, that the $4 trillion are going to reduce the deficit by numbers far greater than they ever expected or heard of.
05:35And, by the way, the stock market went up 1,000 points.
05:39That was as of 10 minutes ago.
05:41I can't tell you what happened.
05:42A lot of things happened.
05:43But the stock market is up almost 1,000 points.
05:46And it's basically on the news that the release that just came out from government that the tariffs that everybody was talking about, that the whole world respects us for, because of what we did, the tariffs are going to be at $4 trillion.
06:04They're going to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion, Mr. Vice President.
06:08That's pretty good, sir.
06:09Two minutes, not five, right?
06:11That's right.
06:11But it's at a huge impact, and the stock market is way up.
06:16But this will drive more than $30 billion in U.S. economy and create 185,000 American jobs.
06:21No sporting event attracts more attention or more fans or anything else.
06:25I just look forward to the draw.
06:27So we're going to have the draw, essentially, Johnny, at the Kennedy Center.
06:32And by that time, it'll be in even better shape.
06:34We're working on it.
06:35It'll take about a year project to make it.
06:38It'll be great.
06:39It'll be fantastic.
06:40You see the way this is looking?
06:41Look, nice.
06:43I can't tell you how much that gold costs.
06:45A lot of money.
06:46There's nothing like gold, and there's nothing like solid gold.
06:49But this beautiful office needed it.
06:52It had to be representative when we took it over.
06:54It was dirty, not clean.
06:57I immediately changed the chair and had this beautiful desk renovated, brought out by the White House.
07:04People that do this, they did a great job.
07:06We send it out.
07:06We have a craftsman who's great.
07:08But this was not appropriate for the Oval Office when I took over.
07:12And now, if you look at all those paintings, you're allowed to turn back.
07:16All of these are great presidents, and they were all in the vaults.
07:19They were in vaults for, in some cases, much more than 100 years.
07:23And now they're proudly hanging on the Oval Office walls.
07:27And I can't imagine anybody changing it.
07:29But they were buried in vaults for over 100 years, many of them.
07:33So it's very exciting.
07:35People come in.
07:35They really love it.
07:36They love what we're doing here.
07:38They love what we're doing in D.C.
07:39And they love what we're doing, most importantly, in the country and the world.
07:43I'd like to ask Johnny to say a few words.
07:45He's the head of the whole thing.
07:46He's been there for a long time.
07:49Probably the most respected man in sports.
07:51He's amazing, actually.
07:53Works very hard.
07:54And he's got the biggest event in the world coming right here to the United States.
07:59And a little — we did a little for Canada.
08:02We did a little for Mexico.
08:03We thought, see, I'm a good citizen.
08:05I said, let them have a little peace.
08:07So we gave a little to Canada.
08:08See how nice I am?
08:09And we gave a little bit to Mexico.
08:12And, Johnny, please, say a few words.
08:16Thank you, President.
08:17A great honor for me to be here with you today, President, Vice President, Excellencies.
08:23It's fantastic to announce what you said, which is the final draw of the FIFA World Cup on the 5th of December here in the capital, in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
08:39at 12 noon sharp.
08:40It will be broadcast live all over the world.
08:43One billion viewers will watch it.
08:46And it will determine, of course, the match schedule, the match schedule, which 48 participating teams will play.
08:54You said it.
08:54104 matches in one month.
08:56104 Super Bowls.
08:58It's not just the biggest, the greatest event.
09:02Not just a sports event.
09:03It's a social event as well with a lot of emotion.
09:05We are uniting the world, Mr. President.
09:07Uniting the world here in America.
09:11And we are very proud of that.
09:12And those teams, those national teams who will come here to participate in this draw with their coaches, with their presidents, they will all be proud to be part of writing this history.
09:25And that's why we brought as well this, which is the winner's trophy.
09:31It is the trophy that the winner of the FIFA World Cup wins.
09:35It is only the FIFA presidents, presidents of countries, and then those who win can touch it, because it's for winners only.
09:46And since you are a winner, of course, you can as well touch it.
09:51It's pretty heavy.
09:52It's the winner's trophy.
09:53The last one who lifted that is Leo Messi, Lionel Messi of Argentina.
09:57And here it is, in the Oval Office, in the White House.
10:02Can I keep it?
10:03For you.
10:04Well, you can keep it.
10:05We're not giving it back.
10:06We're not giving it back.
10:08This is, that's serious.
10:09It fits well.
10:10It fits very well in the wall, right over there.
10:12It's already right below the angel.
10:14It fits well here, I think.
10:15It's beautiful, yeah.
10:16You can keep it, until we have to give it to the next winner.
10:18That's fine.
10:19That's a beautiful piece of gold, I would say.
10:22That's beautiful.
10:23Yeah, so, 6 billion viewers for the World Cup, 6 million coming to the matches, 30 billion
10:32economic impact, 185,000 jobs.
10:37This is, this will be absolutely fantastic.
10:40The biggest event ever in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center, or the Trump-Kennedy Center,
10:48you'll see that, I will be called on the 5th of September at noon, sharp.
10:545th of December, noon, sharp.
10:57Then, if I may...
10:58Will they be doing most of the draws, all of the draws?
11:04Yes, we'll do that at the Kennedy Center.
11:06We'll do all the other meetings around it, with the coaches, with the broadcasters, with
11:09sponsors, everything at the Kennedy Center.
11:11The whole World Cup starts, and everyone will be happy, because everyone has qualified for
11:18the World Cup, and they didn't yet play a game, so they didn't lose yet a game.
11:21So they are all, they all think they can become world champions, right?
11:24They'll all be happy.
11:25Exactly.
11:27Now, by the way, an example, supposing we had a week ago, when everybody was being killed
11:32and mugged and everything else, despite the phony numbers that were given out, that it
11:36was getting better.
11:36Brian, do you believe it was getting better or getting worse?
11:39Oh, the crime was getting worse.
11:40I mean, I was robbed.
11:42It was getting worse.
11:43Yeah.
11:44How did the other guy come out?
11:45Well, he came out with a grief case, unfortunately.
11:50Robber one, crime zero.
11:52No, but can you imagine, you do this, and then you start hearing that they had a 20-year
11:57reduction of crime.
11:59It's worse, it was worse during the Biden administration than anybody's ever imagined
12:04possible.
12:05And I guarantee you, he wouldn't be here if those numbers continued.
12:11But now we have total safety, we have total security.
12:13And for the border, in three months, zero people.
12:17These are done by liberal people that do these charts.
12:21Zero people came through our border in the last 90 days.
12:24Can you believe it?
12:25Zero.
12:26Last year, we had millions of people coming in.
12:28And they came in from the wrong locations.
12:32They came in from, they came in, a lot of people that shouldn't be here.
12:36So now when we have this event in December, it's going to be very safe, Johnny.
12:40You can walk down the street with your beautiful wife.
12:42Yeah.
12:42You can take her to dinner if you can get a reservation, which I doubt.
12:45They're all full of restaurants.
12:47I know.
12:48They're all full.
12:49I heard that too.
12:50The restaurants, since we are doing this, are doing great.
12:55And many new restaurants are going to open because, as you know, many close.
12:58Many restaurants close because the crime was so bad.
13:02This will be one of the safest places anywhere on earth.
13:05So, you know, I really am honored that the National Guard has done such an incredible job
13:10working with the police.
13:12And we haven't had to bring in the regular military, which we're willing to do.
13:18We have to.
13:19And after we do this, we'll go to another location and we'll make it safe also.
13:24We're going to make our country very safe.
13:26We're going to make our cities very, very safe.
13:28Chicago's a mess.
13:29You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent.
13:33And we'll straighten that one out probably next.
13:35That'll be our next one after this.
13:37And it won't even be tough.
13:39And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come.
13:45They're wearing red hats, just like this one.
13:48But they're wearing red hats.
13:50African-American ladies, beautiful ladies are saying,
13:54please, President Trump, come to Chicago.
13:56Please.
13:58I did great with the black vote, as you know.
14:00And they want something to happen.
14:03So I think Chicago will be our next.
14:05And then we'll help with New York.
14:07And we're going to help with it.
14:09And I think, really, I think a lot of these people that you see on television,
14:14they're including the people in this audience.
14:16They'll say bad things about me.
14:18And then they'll say, thank God he's here.
14:20Because half of them got mugged.
14:22And they don't want to get mugged again.
14:23But they work for stupid people that are radical left.
14:29And they're made to do things and say things that they don't want to be saying.
14:32But the people right here are all happy.
14:34Because you're not going to be mugged in Washington, D.C. anymore.
14:38I just want to say, Johnny's been my friend for a long time.
14:41He's an incredible guy.
14:42And we will lay out the red carpet.
14:45Andrew, you're going to be fantastic.
14:47Rick is going to be.
14:48Everything Rick ever touched has always worked out.
14:51And he's working with me on the Kennedy Center.
14:54And his very good friend was an actor on Broadway for five years, right?
14:57And I assume he's helping us a little bit, right?
15:00He is, yes.
15:01And Andrew, you're all excited about it?
15:03Absolutely.
15:04Would you like to say something?
15:05This is a great opportunity, Mr. President,
15:07to show off the first 250 years of the United States of America,
15:12the greatness and the hope and promise of the next 250 years.
15:16When you think this World Cup is going to be over, our 250th birthday, Mr. President,
15:21your leadership, obviously, with FIFA leading the way.
15:25This is the largest sporting event in the history of the world under the Trevor administration.
15:32So I'm very excited.
15:33I just want to say one thing.
15:34Andrew Giuliani said his father was ready.
15:36The greatest mayor in the history of New York, I think by far.
15:40He took a ravaged city, a city that was really under siege.
15:45Probably most people thought it was going to survive.
15:47He turned it around.
15:48He was a great, great mayor.
15:50And then they treated him very, very unfairly.
15:53You go back and tell your father all of the things that have come out over the last couple of months
15:58through Tulsi and through all of the people, cash, everybody.
16:03They've proven your father 100% correct.
16:06His father was treated so unfairly.
16:08Your father has been 100% correct.
16:10And tell him we all love him.
16:12Okay?
16:13Thank you, Mr. President.
16:13He's been amazing.
16:15What he had to go through was very, very unfair.
16:19Nasty.
16:20He's a bad people.
16:20Mr. Vice President, would you like to say something?
16:24Well, sure, Mr. President.
16:25And thanks, Johnny, for being here.
16:26We're very thrilled about the World Cup.
16:28Just to echo something the President said about crime in Washington, D.C.
16:32This is the national capital of the greatest nation in the world.
16:35And we had murder raids just a few weeks ago that rivaled some of the worst third-world cities anywhere,
16:41even in very, very poor regions of the world.
16:44Why did we accept that?
16:46Why did we allow it to happen?
16:47We allowed it to happen because we had broken leadership in Washington, D.C.,
16:51and unfortunately sitting behind the Resolute Desk.
16:53What we have shown in just under two weeks of taking law enforcement seriously
16:57is that the American people can have their streets back if their leadership is willing to put in the time and the resources.
17:03Mr. President, you've shown in Washington, D.C. that we can have safe streets again.
17:08We've just got to have the political willpower to focus on the bad guys
17:12and to give the American people back their communities.
17:14We are focused on doing that thanks to the President's leadership.
17:19And that's a really very small percentage.
17:21It's 2%, 3%.
17:22But that 2% and 3% wreaks just havoc throughout a community.
17:29People are petrified.
17:31And I noticed a couple of the women at the back are shaking their head, yes, yes, yes.
17:34Because I won't report who you are because you'll end up losing your jobs.
17:38But it's true.
17:40It's amazing.
17:42And the police, and you look at the D.C. National Guard,
17:49I saw pictures of them last night getting off vans and all,
17:53and I saw some bad ones running.
17:54But they're not running so much anymore.
17:55They're not there.
17:56They're just not even trying.
17:58You're totally safe.
17:59Now, there'll be something happening sometime.
18:01I don't know.
18:02Maybe it won't be for a long time.
18:03But this was every night we'd get reports of people being mugged.
18:09There's one woman on television last night.
18:12She had a badly busted up nose.
18:14And she said, well, I like our streets the way they used to be.
18:18And she thinks it's going to happen, like, by doing nothing.
18:21And they said, what happened to your nose?
18:23She got slugged by a guy walking down the street.
18:26Slugged.
18:27Her nose will never be the same, I guarantee you,
18:29unless it takes a pretty good turn.
18:32She wasn't really for us.
18:34She sort of said, well, maybe something has to happen.
18:37Before this happened to me, she got whacked.
18:39And I don't think she'll ever be the same.
18:42She almost became, she was a half a Trump fan,
18:45a woman that would have never finished off it.
18:48But she was, she was hit hard.
18:50It's not going to happen anymore.
18:51Not going to happen anymore.
18:52But then we're going to beautify, beautify the city too.
18:55That's where I was today at Kennedy Center.
18:57We're going to beautify the city like it has it.
19:00And we're working with Clark Construction,
19:02the biggest construction company in Chicago.
19:05And in Chicago, New York, and Washington.
19:09And the head of Clark is great.
19:11He's all over the world, actually.
19:13But Washington, I would say, is their home.
19:15That's where they do the best work, the biggest work.
19:17And they're doing, they've been doing a fantastic job.
19:21So you're going to have a fantastic, clean, beautiful place.
19:25It's going to be better than it ever was before.
19:27Literally better than it ever was before.
19:28We'll get it done very quickly.
19:30And I want to thank Clark because they're doing a lot of work
19:34in a lot of different locations.
19:35But they've been fantastic for getting us the right contractors
19:39and the people that can really do the job right.
19:41And Johnny, did you want to say so?
19:42Yes, I want one more thing because, as you rightly say,
19:45you know, with security and beautifying cities and the whole country,
19:50we want people to come and enjoy and have fun.
19:54And that's why this is not just the most iconic trophy in the world of sport,
19:59but we start on the 10th of September the sale of tickets for the FIFA World Cup.
20:06And we have the first ticket here for the final.
20:09For you, it's, of course, row one, seed one, it's ticket number 4547.
20:18And it's for the final in New York, New Jersey.
20:23That's great.
20:23So you have your ticket already for the final.
20:26All the others, 10th of September, start getting your tickets.
20:30That's beautiful.
20:31Yeah.
20:31Six and a half, seven million tickets.
20:34Fans will enjoy the security here.
20:36It will be fantastic.
20:37You're going to do record business, I think.
20:39A hundred percent.
20:39Christy, would you like to say something?
20:41Yeah, Mr. President, millions of people will come to this country.
20:43And we'll make sure they get their travel documents, their visas, that they want to come here and spend their money and enjoy this sporting event.
20:50It'll be the largest event in the world.
20:52And, sir, you're reminding me of something that my dad used to say all the time when I was growing up.
20:57He would say, Christy, you kids need to look like you respect yourself before anybody's going to respect you.
21:03And in this country, when people look at our streets, when they look at our capital, you're bringing respect back to this city.
21:10And people will respect our country more because it's safe, it's clean, it's beautiful.
21:15And what you're doing is transforming this nation by making sure that our laws are upheld.
21:19And millions of people are going to come and be able to enjoy it next year, and I'm excited about that.
21:23Thank you for doing that.
21:24Well, our country is respected again.
21:27And a year ago, we had a dead country.
21:29I'm telling you, it was a dead country.
21:31It was a country that had lost its way.
21:33It was a country that was going to fail.
21:35Look, even today, where they say $4 trillion in reductions of deficits.
21:40And this was totally unexpected.
21:42They didn't expect it.
21:43I mean, I don't know where they've been, the people that do this up, but it's terrible.
21:48I wanted to thank Christy for another reason.
21:49I said to her two weeks ago, I said, Christy, do me a favor.
21:52I built hundreds of miles of water.
21:54The first two weeks ago, you wouldn't have been able to see through it.
22:05So I had Border Patrol in, and they tapped it.
22:12And we gave inside that is 9,000.
22:17That is rebar, a big, fat piece of rebar.
22:20And I said, Christy, we've got to get a coat of paint on it.
22:30And I didn't know she was listening.
22:33But I said, we've got to get a coat of paint.
22:35And it should be black, because black makes the steel very hot.
22:39It's untouchable.
22:40You could fry an egg on it.
22:42And if you've got a good black, flat paint, it would look beautiful.
22:46It will preserve it from rust.
22:48And that was it.
22:49And I gave it to her, along with 30 other things.
22:53Tom Holman and the group.
22:55Tom Holman's a fantastic guy, what the job he does.
23:03He's painting the wall.
23:05And it looked beautiful, by the way, when that man went over there.
23:07And it's hot.
23:08It's hot.
23:10It's hot.
23:11If it's white, it's not hot.
23:12If it's black, it's going to be very hard to climb that sucker.
23:15It's not going to be easy.
23:17But it's black.
23:19And a high-quality black.
23:20You know, it really looked good.
23:22Yeah, we got the paint you told us.
23:22Is that going to be a two-coat job or one coat?
23:24No, just one coat.
23:25One coat.
23:25We used the paint you told me to buy.
23:27Yep.
23:27The two-coat will take place in three years from now.
23:30That's right.
23:30We'll do the second coat.
23:31But it looks beautiful.
23:32But thank you very much.
23:33I didn't know you were listening there.
23:34We talked about seven different subjects.
23:37And all of a sudden, I see you're out there painting with a lot of painters and everything else.
23:40But it was a beautiful thing to say.
23:43Would you like to say something?
23:44You've been such a big part of this.
23:46Please.
23:47Mr. President, we're delighted to be here today for this announcement.
23:50But we're also looking forward to having you at the final.
23:52On July 19th in New York.
23:55We're going to be there.
23:56A lot of people are going to be there.
23:58A lot of people are going to be there.
23:59I'd like to thank you all.
24:01Do you have any questions?
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