Trump's FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force Can Alter How The World Sees The US

Forbes

10-04-2025

United States President Donald Trump's announcement about tariffs triggered shockwaves in global markets and grabbed headlines across global media. But an announcement last month—the formation of a White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup—may be the one that shapes international relations in the long run.
The task force announcement came during a scene inside the Oval Office. Trump, seated at the Resolute Desk with FIFA President Gianni Infantino standing alongside, said, 'We're going to be establishing a task force, a very important task force … and that's on the FIFA World Cup of 2026, which is, you know, is a big event,' Trump said. 'It's going to be the biggest event, I think.'
When the White House announced formation of the task force, which aims to coordinate federal efforts for the 2026 World Cup, it was largely met with a shrug by much of the public. Critics dismissed it as an obvious move by the president or a political puff piece amid a flurry of executive orders and political maneuvers. That reaction, however, underestimates the scale of what's ahead—and the urgency of getting it right.
The World Cup is more than a sports mega-event and the 2026 edition will be the biggest ever staged. It is a festival of sport, tourism, parks, entertainment, arts, and infrastructure that will be jointly hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Millions of people and billions of dollars will be flowing in, through, and around cities and communities connected to the matches. Worldwide audiences will be viewing and engaging with content through television broadcasts and digital platforms on a scale that is anticipated to surpass that of any previous edition of the World Cup.
For the 11 host cities in the U.S. where matches will be played, the tournament's impact will extend far beyond city limits. Each of the 48 nations that win their way into competing for the trophy will establish a base camp in a separate location. Those base camps for team lodging and training will draw fans, media, and economic activity to dozens of additional communities. For more than a month, the World Cup will reshape transportation, security, business, and daily life for residents in cities and towns across the country. And it will shape the impressions that visitors have of those places, too.
In addition to matches and team base camps, each host city will feature a FIFA Fan Festival. These are large-scale events for millions of locals and travelers to gather around music concerts, cultural exhibitions, sponsor activations, and live match-viewings in a select park, plaza, or downtown destination. They create opportunities for community engagement and economic activity, but also require significant coordination across security, traffic and transit, permitting, hospitality, customer service, crowd management, and health, safety, and emergency response resources.
The sheer volume of travel to, from, and between host cities will present major logistical challenges.
The World Cup will put unprecedented pressures on transportation systems, testing their capacity to handle millions of travelers in as smooth and welcoming a manner as possible. Research has shown that lasting impressions about visiting a place are formed by both how a person remembers a peak moment during the experience and how a person remembers the end moment of it. So, a visitor may have a meaningful time attending an event or exploring a city, but their experience entering and exiting—whether through an airport, a train station, a bus station, or a border crossing—can define how they remember it. What they then tell family, friends, and other people afterward can make all the difference in whether any of them choose to visit there in the future.
Security is another factor. This ranges from standard safety measures and incident response procedures to scenario training, intelligence sharing, transportation logistics, and protection of critical physical assets and diplomatic security. Another aspect is travel visa processing—the system, already backlogged by years, is facing a surge in demand around the World Cup and at a moment in time when the Trump administration is enacting a stricter policy on entry into the country. The White House will also be expected to play a key role in delivering federal funding—$625 million has already been requested by U.S. host cities to help cover security costs alone.
Given the magnitude of the challenge, is its full scope being fully-appreciated?
The U.S.-Canada-Mexico bid for the 2026 World Cup was awarded in June 2018. While a White House task force like the one that Trump announced is typically formed years in advance, this particular effort is being launched only a year out from the event. For comparison, President Bill Clinton established a White House Task Force for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics nearly three and a half years prior, and a similar effort for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics three years ahead of the Games. When the U.S. last hosted the FIFA World Cup, in 1994, federal preparations began in 1987, a full seven years earlier.
Although announcing a White House task force a little more than one year in advance might raise concerns, it's worth recognizing that FIFA, 2026 host cities, host city committees, and federal agencies earmarked for the task force have gained significant knowledge and communication over time. Add to that the Trump administration having shown a capacity for swift and intense action when it sees fit. Even so, the demands of planning and coordination for an event of this scale push the bounds of most imaginations.
FIFA President Infantino has likened the World Cup to three Super Bowls a day—or 104 Super Bowls—in sixteen host cities across three countries over the course of one month. That is a fair assessment from someone who surely knows. But city organizers for 2026 might plan for the atmosphere to be more like an NFL Super Bowl, a WWE WrestleMania, and a Formula One Grand Prix all unfolding in multiple cities at once. The social and economic implications are staggering.
While there has been coordination in prior years, the formation of the White House task force marks a turning point. It's not just a procedural move. It isn't political theater, either. It is a signal that World Cup 2026 is no longer on the horizon—it is now firmly part of the national agenda. As the executive order notes, it 'underscores President Trump's commitment to showcasing national pride, hospitality, and economic opportunity through sports tourism.' This focus has the potential to shape the global perception of the U.S. and its cities for years to come.
When the matches kick-off next summer, there will be no extra time for municipalities, agencies, businesses, and communities to get things right for residents, visitors, and the future fortunes of cities. The clock is ticking. And as if there weren't enough moving parts already, the White House task force order ties the World Cup to America's 250th anniversary celebration.
Local governments, host committees, and FIFA will handle most of the logistical coordination, but federal involvement is key to ensuring it's done effectively. This reality makes the existence and work of the White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup more critical than most people realize.