The chairman of the Kennedy Center—who also happens to be the president of the United States—is about to have a busy few months. He’ll be hosting the Kennedy Center Honors (despite claiming that he really, really didn’t want to) in December, and now he has a whole other event to deal with: the 2026 World Cup draw, which he announced would be taking place at the arts institute today, per The Athletic. You’d think he’d run out of steam somewhere between sending cronies to review seemingly every exhibit at the Smithsonian, whining about South Park, and forcibly occupying the nation’s capital, but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet. Maybe all that intense soccer fan energy will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. (He did get booed pretty loudly the last time he tried to attend a match.)
The draw is the opening event of the storied men’s tournament. It marks the first time participating teams learn who they’ll be facing in the group stage, and it’s usually made into a spectacle featuring speeches and live performances, per The Athletic. FIFA was reportedly already deep into negotiations with Las Vegas to host the event, as it did the last time the World Cup took place in the U.S. in 1994. Trump has long been cozy with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, however, and The Athletic suggests that the organization “has always been determined to make it as easy as possible for Trump to be involved in the draw.” And participate he will. “The Kennedy Center will give it a phenomenal kick-off,” the president said during his announcement conference, “and we’ll be involved.”
Of course, the close relationship between Infantino and the president has caused a great deal of alarm, with multiple groups voicing concern about how Trump’s draconian immigration policy could affect both fans and players planning to travel into the country to watch the tournament. In July, over 90 civil society groups including the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the NAACP sent Infantino a letter urging FIFA to “use its influence to encourage the U.S. government to guarantee the fundamental rights of the millions of foreign visitors and fans who seek entry to the United States to attend the tournaments, and the constitutional rights of the many immigrants who already live, work, and contribute meaningfully to the cities selected to host them.” You can read the full text of the letter on the Human Rights Watch’s site.
