The phrase “Trump Curse” quickly trended online after America’s resounding World Cup loss against Belgium.
President Donald Trump admitted on Monday that he’d personally intervened with the FIFA President Gianni Infantino to overturn the suspension of Team USA superstar Folarin Balogun.
Balogun’s red card in Thursday’s tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina officially ruled him out of the last-16 match-up with Belgium. FIFA sensationally overturned the suspension after Trump’s intervention, prompting accusations of political interference and even corruption.
However, despite Balogun being able to join the American team thanks to Trump calling in a favor from his friend, they lost 4-1 to a team that had clearly been motivated by the controversy and found themselves dumped out of the tournament.
The Belgium players even mocked Trump’s influence on the result by imitating his awkward “YMCA” dance after striker Romelu Lukaku kicked the winning goal.
The Belgians’ social media team joined in the trolling with a post on X showing Lukaku celebrating his goal and the caption: “Overturn this.”#
After the devastating loss, Trump’s problematic impact on the game was quickly slammed on social media, where “Trump Curse” quickly started trending.
Progressive news outlet MeidasTouch listed a string of key sporting events Trump championed and also attended in person, which resulted in a loss for his favored team.
“He attended the Super Bowl and predicted a Chiefs win, but the Eagles blew them out,” they noted.
“He was there when the Commanders hosted the Lions and lost at home. He watched from a suite as Miami fell in the College Football National Championship. He sat in the owner’s suite when the Knicks snapped their huge playoff streak in NBA Finals Game 3. And he attended the Ryder Cup where Europe topped the US team.”
Trump’s former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci also cited the NBA result as evidence of the president’s bad sporting luck, posting on X after the World Cup loss “Ouch. Trump curse in full effect like with the Knicks.”
Trump, 80, did not attend Monday’s game in Seattle, setting off Monday night for a NATO summit in Turkey.
The PatriotTakes account called out Trump’s “Loser stench,” while attorney Adam Cohen posted “Trump leans on FIFA to vacate the Balogun red card... The team has a nightmare game...Everything. Trump. Touches. Dies.”
Speaking on MS NOW on Monday, All In host Chris Hayes also mocked the idea of Trump being a “super soccer fan.”
The president had earlier admitted he did not know what a red card was when he got involved in overturning Balogun’s suspension. Trump claimed, “I’m a person that loves sports and was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well. Really well.”
“To be honest, now that he’s touched the World Cup, I think we’re all worse off for it,” Hayes said. “And he is being viewed by competitors around the world as a stain on the global pastime.”
The host added that Trump and FIFA were “made for each other,” saying it was the “perfect microcosm of everything that’s wrong with both American politics and its current degraded state and global sports and its also current degraded state.”
The Trump curse was also invoked by the president’s estranged niece Mary, who pointed out what would have happened if the U.S. had won.
“The best US men’s team ever loses to Belgium,” Mary posted on X. “If they’d advanced, there would have been an asterisk next to their victory because of Donald’s interference.”
She added, “He casts a shadow over everything. He can only win if he cheats, and he thinks that applies to everybody else. Sad.”
On Monday, before the game, Trump revealed his interference in the suspension process and said, “If Belgium beat us then they can be really proud. The other way—if they beat us, I say it was rigged just like the election was rigged in 2020."
Sportswriter Kieran Jackson of The Independent said said the result was “karma” for Trump.
“After all the controversy and commander-in-chief-led skullduggery, here came the great American fall from grace,” he wrote in his review of the game.
“An aggrieved Belgium outfit firmly made their statement on the pitch to knock the United States out of the World Cup on Monday evening. That’s what you call bad karma, Mr President.”
He added, “And it felt fitting that FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who took Trump’s call to arms, was present in his VIP seat to bear witness,” saying the overturning of Balogun’s band “had cast a dark cloud over the sporting integrity of this World Cup.”
Jackson added, “Sometimes, though, sport has its own way of providing poetic justice. And in the Seattle heat, it was a dish best served cold.”
Trump is yet to comment on the U.S. loss. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
