Analysis: Oversized Trump banners, a renamed Institute of Peace, and a surprise FIFA Peace Prize — Washington DC is looking very different as sport and politics collide ahead of the World Cup. 1News US correspondent Logan Church was there.
On the snow lined streets of Washington DC, things already feel different.
It’s not the freezing cold weather. Not even the extra police on patrol.
It’s the oversized banners of Donald Trump, adorning oversized neoclassical buildings on the National Mall. It’s the oversized American flag that the US president ordered to be erected at the White House. It’s the construction site at the same White House where Donald Trump’s new ballroom add-on is being put together. It’s the US Institute of Peace building, which has been renamed as of this week The Donald J Trump United States Institute of Peace.
That same presence was felt everywhere at this year's FIFA draw held at the Kennedy Centre - a major arts and events hub in the US capital that Trump appointed himself chairman of earlier this year.
Traditionally, the draw is somewhat simple. Countries are pulled from a hat (or balls pulled out of a ball in this case). A football tournament follows. A team wins. Rinse and repeat.
But perhaps the first sign something new was coming was what seemed to be a very late announcement in November that FIFA would award someone a global peace prize.
"The FIFA Peace Prize is presented annually on behalf of the billions of football-loving people from around the world to a distinguished individual who exemplifies an unwavering commitment to advancing peace and unity throughout the world through their notable leadership and action," said Gianni Infantino, FIFA president at the draw today.
It came as a shock to no one that the recipient was Donald Trump, who appeared genuinely thrilled when he accepted the award, placing the gold medal around his own neck.
"The world is a safer place now. The United States, one year ago, was not doing too well, and now I have to say we're the hottest country anywhere in the world and we're going to keep it that way," said the US president in uncharacteristically brief remarks.
Infantino and Trump have a very close relationship. He was at the president’s inauguration earlier this year and FIFA have offices in Trump Tower in New York.
The FIFA boss has publicly lamented that Donald Trump hasn’t received recognition for his efforts to achieve global peace.
Many in Trump's inner circle, as well as political and foreign allies, mounted a spirited yet unsuccessful campaign to have the US President awarded the Nobel Peace prize earlier this year.
Infantino seemed to have rectified that today, despite long claiming that football shouldn’t be political.
"There’s no more powerful tool than sport to unite the people. Now we have to protect the autonomy of sport: the political neutrality of sport, and to protect the values of sport," he said in 2023.
However, there are many — in America and across the globe — who agree the president has achieved a more stable world, saying he’s forced warring nations to the negotiating table, he’s using the military to stop the drug trade, and making American cities safer by deploying National Guardsmen and Federal agents.
There are many others though that believe the US president has achieved everything but global peace: by threatening allies, using tariffs as weapons, targeting his political opponents, and using the federal government to sow fear in Democrat-leaning cities and the immigrant communities who live there.
To me, it seems the FIFA World Cup is now the new battleground for the political narrative.
There is, of course, a chance that all will run smoothly.
It was certainly quite something to see the leaders of the US, Canada, and Mexico, standing together on stage today as host nations, considering Mark Carney and Claudia Sheinbaum have been waging a kind of diplomatic war of words with the US over its new trade policy, his suggestions that Canada should give up its sovereignty and become the 51st US State, as well as Trump’s immigration agenda.
Those leaders want this to go well.
Sport and politics have always danced around each other, but not with the speed and intensity that it is doing now.
This will be a tournament like none other.
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