Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino Booed During Spain Celebration

Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino were booed as they took to the field for the presentation ceremony before the U.S. president attempted to gatecrash Spain’s victory party at the World Cup final on July 19, 2026. Trump had arrived at the stadium on Marine One, with the president’s helicopter first flying over the stadium about 45 minutes before kick-off. He sat in a glassed-in section of luxury seats for the match, alongside Infantino. Other dignitaries and former players, including Spain’s King Felipe VI, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, were also present nearby.

After the U.S. national anthem was played, Trump was briefly shown on the video screens at the stadium, garnering scattered boos from the crowd, though not the intense hostility he faced at other sporting events. However, when Trump and Infantino came onto the field for the presentation following Spain’s victory, loud boos rang out across the venue. The White House pool report noted that ambient crowd noise rose from approximately 78 decibels to 84 decibels upon Trump’s entrance to the field.

After presenting Spain with the World Cup trophy, Trump made an attempt to join the team at the side of the podium as they celebrated. Infantino, however, quietly guided him away. This marked a repeat of an incident from the previous summer at the same stadium, during the Club World Cup, when Trump presented the trophy to champions Chelsea and tried to enter the celebrations, much to the confusion of the players.

Since his re-election, Trump has made numerous appearances at sporting events, including last year’s Super Bowl, tennis’s U.S. Open, the Daytona 500, and golf’s Ryder Cup. This year he attended various golf events, the college football national championship game, and Game 3 of the NBA finals, where he was also met with boos from the New York Knicks home crowd.

His appearance on July 19 was his first match at this summer’s World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. At the 2022 World Cup final, the trophy was awarded by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates, while in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the trophy was awarded by Vladimir Putin to Kylian Mbappé and France.

Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a World Cup final on home soil, a notable distinction since his predecessor Bill Clinton did not attend the 1994 tournament, with the trophy presented instead by then Vice President Al Gore. Recently, Trump maintained a close relationship with Infantino, even lobbying for a review of U.S. star Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension prior to the U.S. team’s last-16 match—though the political drama ultimately overshadowed the U.S. team’s promising run, leading to their exit with a defeat to Belgium.