Donald Trump will join Gianni Infantino to present the World Cup trophy at the 19 July final in New Jersey
FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced on Tuesday that U.S. president Donald Trump will be on stage at MetLife Stadium to hand the trophy to the new world champion on 19 July.
The announcement
FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed the plan during an appearance on the Fox & Friends morning show on Tuesday. He said the two will appear together for football's biggest game.
We will be together with the president enjoying the final and handing the trophy to the winner, of course, together. We are together all the time.
The 2026 World Cup began on 11 June and is being staged across the United States, Mexico and Canada. The final is set for 19 July at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a venue that can hold more than 82,000 spectators.
A close relationship
Infantino and Trump have cultivated an unusually tight bond in the run-up to the tournament. The FIFA president presented Trump with the newly created FIFA Peace Prize last December during the World Cup draw in Washington, calling him a "close friend." Infantino has also been a guest at Trump's second inauguration and at a diplomatic summit in the Middle East.
This is truly one of the great honours of my life. And beyond awards, we saved millions and millions of lives.
Human-rights group FairSquare asked FIFA's in-house ethics committee to investigate the relationship between Infantino and Trump last December, and the Norwegian Football Association president also criticised the award.
Previous trophy presentation
Trump's only prior trophy handover at MetLife Stadium set the stage for awkward moments. At last summer's Club World Cup final he presented the trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James but then stayed on the winners' podium, standing between James and goalkeeper Robert Sánchez during the lift.
They told me that he was going to present the trophy and then exit the stage and I thought that he was going to exit the stage, but he wanted to stay.
Midfielder Cole Palmer, who scored the winning goal, appeared equally surprised. Trump was booed loudly by the New Jersey crowd that night.
White House presence at the tournament
Trump has yet to attend a World Cup match, though other administration figures have been visible. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat alongside Infantino at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for the USMNT's 4-1 win over Paraguay on 12 June. Andrew Giuliani, the White House's World Cup task force executive director, told the Telegraph that Trump likes to "leave people watching" and has been kept away by his schedule.
The president was booed in New York last week when he became the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game, watching the Knicks fall to the Spurs in game three.
