195. The World Cup Disaster: How Mamdani Outplayed Trump
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Welcome to The Rest Is Politics US with me, Katty Kay.
And me, Anthony Scaramucci. Katty, what are we going to be talking about today?
Unless you've all been living under a rock, you are probably aware that the World Cup is kicking off on Thursday this week. Very exciting. Of course, the event much anticipated. It's being held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, but... Unfortunately, this has not been the great relaunch of American soft power that America might have expected or hoped for, because between the ICE presence at the stadiums and a big row between ICE and New York Mayor Mamdani, lots of different visa issues with one African referee even being barred from entry into the U.S., empty hotel rooms. Controversy, of course, around Iran's participation. This has now become an image of how closed off America is and has become rather than how open and welcoming the World Cup host nation is.
So I thought it was worth talking about that today, Antony. When the World Cup was picked for the United States,
What challenges does the World Cup reveal about America's soft power?
I remember that Infantino, the head of FIFA, was going around America saying that this is going to be like 104 Super Bowls and it's going to be this huge economic boost for America. What did he say? There was going to be the cavalry of tourists coming to America to watch the World Cup. And of course, actually, it hasn't quite panned out that way. There was a report out just a couple of weeks ago saying that hotel rooms are down in occupancy, something like 80% compared to normal in the host cities. That is not what you'd expect. Flights to America are down 15% July of this year during the World Cup compared to July of last year. It's just turned into being, if you watch coverage around the world, it is one story after another of how America is shutting its doors to fans, to photographers, to team members, even to this one referee, a Somali referee who was named Africa's Referee of the Year and was given hours of interrogation, tried to get into the United States and was
not allowed to come into the country, even though he was meant to be refereeing one of the games. So I think as a kind of exercise in soft power or an exercise in brand rehabilitation, Anthony, I reckon you could do a lot better than America is doing right now during the World Cup. What do you reckon?
Well, I mean, you know, they're at zero. So I think a lot of people could do better. But Kat, I want you to go to, if you don't mind, before I chime in, go to the unions and some of the issues that are going on with some of the unions related to ICE right now. So these are concession workers at the stadiums, etc. ?
Yeah. So ice, I mean, the whole issue around ice has been super interesting because there's two different issues. You've got Tom Horman who repeated this week on Monday that he was going to be having more ice agents than you've ever seen in New York City around the World Cup. They haven't refuted the idea that they're going to be going into stadiums and picking up workers. Well, who is it that runs the stadiums? Who is it that runs the concession stands? Who is it that cleans the stadiums? So many immigrants to the United States are the ones doing that. So you now have the workers' unions threatening to go on strike, particularly out in California where some of the matches are being held. during the World Cup if there is an ICE presence.
And what's interesting is that the administration has been given the opportunity to say, no, there won't be ICE looking for people who are in the country illegally. They've been pushed on this in multiple interviews, and they have decided that actually their message is going to be, you know what, we are there for national security. But guys, if we happen to come across people who are in the country illegally, this is picking them up. This is what Mark Wayne Mullen, the head of DHS, has said. I think that's the backdrop to this. It's not just a story about the World Cup. This has become a story about whether America is open to migrants, whether America is open to foreigners.
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