Americans' Embrace of the World Cup Is Yet Another Sign of an America Bigger and Better Than Trump
For those who are Never Trump, as is this libertarian lawyer and blogger, there was never any doubt that America was more and better than Trump's authoritarian populism.
So far, this has been an unexpectedly good World Cup, writes Simon Kuper. It's partly the profusion of goals — unmatched since the 1950s — and partly the abundance of minnows, each with its own Cinderella story, some of them doing surprisingly well. But the tournament's biggest asset may be, against all expectations, the U.S.
It's understandable that foreigners (and many Americans), having seen the violence of immigration enforcement against innocent thousands, and having heard the threats of immigration enforcement at the World Cup, would have their doubts about a festive football atmosphere.
And yet, and yet, if the World Cup were to go bad in the worst way, through nativist violence, it would have been only by the actions of a blood-and-soil minority. Our people have never given Trump a majority of the popular vote, and his recent minority-vote victory in 2024 brought no mandate with it to attack, abduct, and murdering people in our streets. (Trump also had no mandate for serial wars abroad, profiting by billions of dollars while in federal office, or myriad other offenses against justice or propriety.)
It's for this reason that Trump and his party are now scorned — indeed, despised — by so many of our fellow Americans. The majority’s view of him begins with contempt and intensifies, by degrees, into moral revulsion.
We in the majority are a people burdened by a man who behaves as though he were an animal by treating other people worse than animals.
We in this majority are hopeful and inquisitive, open and welcoming to the world. Our people’s embrace of the World Cup is an example and confirmation of our majority's goodness.
