President Donald Trump’s latest remarks have thrown a spotlight on the intersection of sports, politics, and public safety, as he threatened to relocate two of the world’s largest sporting events—the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches scheduled for Boston and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles—if he deems the host cities unprepared or unsafe. The comments, made on October 14, 2025, during a lunch with Argentine President Javier Milei in Washington, have sparked fierce reactions from local officials, international sports organizations, and political observers across the country.
The greater Boston area is set to host seven World Cup matches next summer at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, about 20 miles southwest of the city. The Los Angeles Olympics, meanwhile, are slated to bring roughly 800 events to Southern California, with select competitions like softball and canoe slalom set for Oklahoma City. Both events represent not just athletic prestige, but also billions in economic impact for their respective regions.
Trump’s threats come against the backdrop of recent public safety concerns in Boston, where so-called “street takeovers”—incidents involving crowds or groups of vehicles blocking roads and causing disturbances—have made headlines. Two Rhode Island teenagers were arrested in Boston’s South End this month after fireworks struck a police cruiser during one such episode. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, has declared “zero tolerance” for such conduct, a stance echoed by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who has also denounced the takeovers.
In response to a reporter’s question about these incidents, Trump criticized Mayor Wu, calling her “intelligent, but radical left,” and claimed she was “afraid for political reasons to take back the city.” He added, “If somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni [Infantino], the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal, and I would say, ‘Let’s move it to another location.’ And he would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it. Very easily, he’d do it. And this is the right time to do it.”
Trump’s relationship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino has grown notably close during his second term. Infantino has accompanied Trump on official business—including a recent trip to the Middle East for Gaza peace talks—and has visited the White House multiple times. Trump even kept FIFA’s original World Cup trophy in the Oval Office for a period. Despite this rapport, FIFA has made it clear that decisions about tournament venues rest solely with the organization.
“It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani said earlier this month, according to The Guardian. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans. That’s the beauty of our game, that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu pushed back strongly against the president’s assertions. “Boston is honored and excited to host World Cup matches, and we look forward to welcoming fans from around the world to our beautiful city, the cradle of liberty and city of champions,” Wu said in a statement. On a local radio show, she added, “There’s no ability to take away the World Cup games. There’s no real threat when it comes to saying cities are so unsafe that they can’t host the games. Much of it is locked down by contract so that no single person, even if they live in the White House currently, can undo it.” Wu also cited Boston’s record low homicide rate last year and described the city as one of the safest major cities in America.
The World Cup is expected to generate an estimated $1 billion boost to the Boston region’s economy—a once-in-a-generation windfall, according to tourism officials. Boston is one of eleven U.S. cities set to host matches, alongside locations such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as venues in Canada and Mexico.
Trump’s comments were not limited to Boston. He also took aim at Los Angeles, saying, “If I thought LA was not going to be prepared properly, I would move it to another location, if I had to.” He directed criticism at California Governor Gavin Newsom, referencing the governor’s handling of destructive wildfires in Los Angeles earlier in 2025 and their ongoing disputes over immigration enforcement and National Guard deployments. “Gavin Newsom, he’s got to get his act together because had we not gone in at the beginning of my term ... with a very strong, powerful force, they would have lost LA. The city was going to be taken over,” Trump asserted, referring to his deployment of National Guard troops in response to protests against federal immigration raids.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Newsom have both clashed with Trump over federal policies, particularly this past summer amid immigration enforcement raids and the resulting protests. In response to Trump’s remarks about moving the Olympics, Newsom fired back on social media, posting, “Hey Don, if you send the Olympics to the UAE, will they give you another golf course?”
For the 2028 Olympics, Trump acknowledged that relocating the Games would require a “different kind of a permission,” referencing the contract between Los Angeles and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Utah Governor Spencer Cox, whose state is set to host the 2034 Winter Games, recently signed a similar contract with the IOC, outlining specific conditions that could allow the IOC to drop a host city. An IOC spokesperson told Deseret News, “The LA Games have the full support of the President of the United States, the Governor of California and the Mayor of Los Angeles. All of them are being extremely helpful in the preparations for these Games. There are three years to go, and we are confident that LA28 will be great Olympic Games.”
Trump’s administration has shown a keen interest in the Olympics, with the president signing an executive order in August 2025 to create a White House task force on the 2028 Summer Games, allocating $1 billion in a tax and spending bill earlier this year to support the event’s preparations.
The broader context of Trump’s threats involves a pattern of targeting Democratic-led cities. In the past year, he has attempted to send the National Guard to cities including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland, and Memphis, citing concerns over public safety. He previously threatened to pull World Cup matches from Seattle and San Francisco as well, if he deemed them “even a little bit dangerous.”
Political observers note that Trump’s rhetoric is part of a broader campaign to assert federal authority over local governance, particularly in cities led by his political opponents. Local officials, however, have largely dismissed the threats as political theater, emphasizing the contractual and logistical realities that make such relocations highly unlikely.
As the countdown to the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics continues, the debate over who truly holds the power to shape these global events—and what role political calculations should play in their fate—remains as fierce as ever.
