Farmingdale, New York (Reuters) -S -President Donald Trump said he would consider moving 2026 World Cup matches from cities that he did not consider safe, months before the United States work together the Quadrennial football show case with Canada and Mexico.
Eleven American cities will welcome matches, including the final in New York/New Jersey, for the greatest edition ever of the tournament.
Asked for moving matches of cities that do not collaborate with his immigration and crime initiatives, Trump said that it was on the table during comments made on Thursday in the Oval Office.
“If I think it's not safe, we will move it to another city,” said Trump, who is a Republican.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump would have that authority. Reuters has contacted the administrative body of World Soccer FIFA for comment.
A reporter at the Oval Office briefing mentioned two cities – democratically controlled San Francisco and Seattle – as possible goals for having World Cup hosting tasks.
Reuters has contacted the host committees for comment for both cities.
Trump sent hundreds of troops earlier this year to the American capital led by the Democrats to support a federal performance about what he called a crime epidemic.
The image goes against available data that demonstrates that crime figures have generally fallen in recent years.
During his second term, the US president repeatedly stabbed the sports spotlight and announced last month that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington will organize the World Cup trekking 2026.
On Friday, Trump would attend the first day of Golf's Ryder Cup Competition on Long Island, a Republican stronghold, on Friday.
(Reporting by Amy Ternery in Farmingdale, New York; Edit by Ken Ferris)
