2026 World Cup: Donald Trump Reimagines the Trophy Presentation to Spain in His Own Way

The 2026 World Cup ended with Spain’s triumph and a moment that Donald Trump certainly cannot be entirely proud of. The U.S. president, who—along with FIFA President Gianni Infantino—presented the trophy to the new world champions, caused a stir online with his decision not to leave the stage, creating some awkwardness for Spanish captain Rodri as well as Infantino himself. In the meantime, however, he decided to restore dignity to the historic moment in which he played a leading role by removing any footage that cast him in a negative light.

A new post on his Truth Social account, published on Wednesday, makes it clear what Trump wants to remember about the 2026 World Cup awards ceremony. In the video he chose to repost without any caption, we see just 24 seconds of footage showing the World Cup being presented to Rodri and a couple of handshakes by the U.S. President. The moment when he stands alongside the Spanish national team—and is effectively pushed aside even by Infantino himself—has been cut from the edit. This may be further proof that he himself realized he had caused some discomfort on that historic night in New York. In part, even to himself.

After all, this isn’t the first time Trump has found himself in this situation at a major soccer event: already in the Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, he had lingered on stage longer than necessary, drawing the attention of the cameras amid the embarrassment of some players and the boos of part of the crowd. A scenario that repeated itself—in an even more amplified form—on the night at MetLife Stadium. And the tension surrounding his presence was already palpable before kickoff: Trump had welcomed the Spanish royal family and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez—with whom relations are far from smooth—after having called Spain “a lost cause” and “a terrible NATO partner” just eleven days earlier at the NATO summit in Ankara. The prospect of having to present the World Cup trophy to the Spanish national team had already sparked mockery from his critics, with former Senior Director of the National Security Council Thomas J. Wright commenting on X: “It’ll be pretty funny if Trump has to present the World Cup trophy to Spain on Sunday.”

The evening was also marked by other awkward moments for the U.S. president. During the medal ceremony for the Argentine players, defender Cristian Romero pointedly ignored Trump’s outstretched hand, walking past him in the line of dignitaries without shaking it. The former Atalanta player was the only one not to greet the tycoon, in a scene that immediately went viral on social media. All the Spanish players, on the other hand, had shaken hands with the president as expected.

The awards ceremony, however, was not the only political flashpoint of the evening. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin was absent from the stands at MetLife Stadium, and his absence was interpreted as a full-fledged boycott of FIFA’s management of the tournament and Trump’s interference. According to the *Telegraph*, the final decision not to attend was made following the “Balogun incident”—specifically, Trump’s phone call to Infantino and the subsequent lifting of the U.S. forward’s suspension. This unprecedented move sealed the complete rift between Ceferin and Infantino, with the UEFA president also formally serving as Infantino’s vice president.

Despite the controversy, the 2026 World Cup’s numbers have made history. According to Infantino himself, the tournament drew nearly 7 million spectators to the stadiums, and likely more than 6 billion people watched the matches from home. In the United States, Fox announced that the Spain-Argentina final drew 38.937 million viewers, with a peak of 51.685 million, setting a new all-time record for an English-language soccer match in American history, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. These numbers have vindicated, at least from a commercial standpoint, Trump’s decision to make the United States the home of world soccer. Although the way he chose to commemorate that night—by editing and re-editing the video of the award ceremony—perhaps speaks more eloquently than any statistic about the personal price he had to pay for that evening.