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President Donald Trump lauded FIFA, governing body of soccer’s World Cup, for lifting a suspension of U.S. star Folarin Balogun — who is a birthright citizen
In a Sunday afternoon post to Truth Social, the president praised the shocking ruling which clears Balogun to play Monday night against Belgium in the pivotal Round of 16 World Cup match.
“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump wrote.
FIFA’s ruling was shocking in that it invoked a seldom-cited bylaw to suspend the red card which was given to Balogun in his previous match. Had the red card not been suspended, Balogun, by rule, would have been ineligible for Monday’s match.
But the irony of Trump heralding FIFA’s decision is that Balogun is only eligible to be part of the U.S. squad in the first place thanks to birthright citizenship — which the president and his administration have heavily fought against. Balogun’s mother, a British citizen, traveled to New York City while pregnant with him in 2001. An airline prohibited her from flying home, deeming her to be too close to delivery, so she gave birth to Balogun and remained in New York for two months before returning to the U.K.
Balogun is a citizen of the U.K., the U.S. and Nigeria but opted to play for the Stars and Stripes following a recruiting battle in which all three nations courted him.
Trump has been a vocal opponent of birthright citizenship. On Tuesday, after the Supreme Court ruled against his administration in Trump v. Barbara — in which the majority of Justices found Trump’s 2025 executive order violated the 14th Amendment — the president raged against the decision and called on Congress to pass a new Amendment.
“The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship.”
Trump’s praise of FIFA is also likely to draw renewed scrutiny on the cozy relationship between Trump and FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino — who created an award called the FIFA Peace Prize and gave it to the president in 2025.
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Joe DePaolo is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Email him here: joed@mediaite.com Follow him on X: @joe_depaolo
Source: Mediaite
