Trump threatens to move World Cup games from another city: “We could take them away”

President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to move World Cup games from certain host cities if he is not happy with the safety situation.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump was asked about the prospect of moving games from Boston and he claimed that he was not ruling it out: “We could, we could take it away. I love the people of Boston and I know the games are sold out.

“But your mayor is not good. There are worse than her, at least she’s intelligent, there’s some that are extremely low IQ, those bother me more. She’s intelligent but she’s radical left.”

Boston is set to host seven games of the 104-game tournament, including two knockout games. The expanded 2026 tournament will be the first World Cup to feature 48 teams and is being played in 16 host cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Earlier this month Trump first forwarded the idea of moving games from their current locations, claiming that certain Democrat-led cities could be dangerous. However making such a move would be a major undertaking with less than a year to go until the tournament, disrupting plans for teams, officials and fans who will travel from all around the world for next summer’s tournament.

There is also the matter of agreeing such a move with FIFA, world soccer’s governing body. Speaking earlier this month a key FIFA figure dismissed the suggestion.

“It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani said recently. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans.”

“That’s the beauty of our game, is that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country,” Montagliani added.

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