FIFA and NATO Are Appeasing Trump. That's Not Their Mission.
International organizations are focused on flattery, while the rest of the world sees through it.
The sports world reflects society at large, and this year’s World Cup has been no exception. As the U.S. secured its first win in a knockout since 2002, the team’s top scorer, striker Folarin Balogun, received a red card, meaning he would be ineligible for the next match. The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. President Donald Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked him to review the call. According to the Journal, Infantino was noncommittal on the first call, but the next time the two spoke, Infantino told Trump that the call had been reversed, using a seldom-used part of the rulebook. On July 5, Trump posted on social media: “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”
While it’s reasonable to disagree with the controversial call, such blatant political interference threatens the integrity of the game. The episode is another example of how international institutions are kowtowing to Trump instead of carrying out their mission, which for FIFA, is to cultivate the game of football.
It’s not only FIFA. NATO is having its annual summit in the Turkish capital of Ankara this week, and the expectations are merely to avoid angering Trump, who will be there. A year and a half since Trump took office for the second time, it’s worth taking stock of the effectiveness of NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s strategy of flattering Trump to keep him inside the alliance. No, Trump has not left NATO as he has repeatedly warned. And Trump’s efforts to take over Greenland earlier this year failed after NATO allies closed ranks with Denmark, which controls the territory.
But NATO has failed to convince Trump to take meaningful steps to contain Russia, which is the raison d’être of the alliance. In August, Trump invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to Anchorage, Alaska, for a summit, bringing him back from the cold of international isolation that began after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Before and since, he has talked with Putin far more than any Western leader -- most recently on July 4 -- and failed to fulfill his campaign pledge to end the Russo-Ukrainian war in “24 hours.” Putin seems emboldened by Trump’s outreach, as evidenced by statistics showing that Russia’s missile and drone attacks against Ukraine have more than doubled since Trump took office again.
Moreover, as Rutte has upped the flattery -- even referring to the U.S. president as “daddy” -- Trump has wanted more. Initially, Trump claimed that his problem was with NATO countries not spending enough on defense, but now he has demanded members’ loyalty to him. “We don’t need their money — we don’t need anything,” Trump said late last month. “I just want loyalty.”
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