The 2026 World Cup, which will be joint-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is right around the corner.
And President Donald Trump believes that the world’s biggest and most popular sporting event could end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
During a ceremony where FIFA President Gianni Infantino was in Washington to speak with Trump about the upcoming event, Trump was asked about the possibility of Russia being allowed to compete at the World Cup.
Russia has been banned from international competition since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, something Trump himself admitted he did not know.
“I didn’t know that, is that right?” Trump asked Infantino. “He is the boss, I am not the boss on that.”
The FIFA President said that this was correct, but expressed his hope for peace so that Russia could return to the international stage.
Trump then floated the idea of the World Cup being a sort of carrot that could be dangled in front of the Russians to help bring about an end to the war in Ukraine.
“That’s possible,” Trump said.
“Hey, that could be a good incentive, right? We want to get them to stop. We want them to stop. Five thousand young people a week are being killed, it’s not even believable, the Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers mostly.
“Horrible things going on over there. We are going to get that war stopped.”
If Russia wants any hope of playing in the 2026 World Cup, it has to get peace talks ramped up into overdrive because the qualification process is underway, having gotten started back in March.