US set to be host to biggest sporting events with guests it doesn’t want | Emma John

Donald Trump is closing the borders even though the World Cup and 2028 Olympics will take place in his country

Call it big, beautiful timing. On Tuesday, Fifa announced it had taken an office in Trump Tower. On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced he would attend the Club World Cup final. And who could begrudge the US president a little sporting entertainment after the week he has had? Those Nobel peace prize applications don't write themselves.

Trump's attendance at a tournament that we can be 95% sure he doesn't understand is, doubtless, a huge coup and political victory for football. This is a sport that only a decade ago was openly considered un-American, scrawled into the rightwing commentator's list of pet peeves between meteorologists and Judy Blume. Ann Coulter described soccer's growing popularity as a sign of the nation's moral decay". Glenn Beck likened it to Obamacare: It doesn't matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn't matter how many celebrities you get ... we want nothing to do with it."