Well, thank you very much, and good afternoon. I'm delighted to welcome FIFA President Gianni Infantino, one of the greatest men of sport. He is an amazing man; he's done an incredible job with FIFA. Congratulations on the job. I hear you're setting records for the World Cup. We'll talk about it, but setting records in ticket sales for the World Cup. And we love having you back at the White House, Gianni, and everybody that's with you. You guys have done fantastically. I also want to thank Vice President JD Vance. JD, wherever you may be... where's JD? He's starting... oh, he's coming right over. Marco Rubio is doing a fantastic job, and Secretary Kristi Noem is doing a fantastic job as well as Representative Darren LaHood. Thank you all very much. Hi, Darren. This past summer, the United States hosted the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, and it was great. I actually went to a match and it was amazing. That was a big success, too, wasn't it? It was sort of like a preview of what's to come. And now we're getting ready for an even bigger event next year as we host the official 2026 FIFA World Cup. That's the big one. The World Cup tournament. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity even for our country because, frankly, you know, this goes to countries—everybody wants it. I guess it's going all over the world. Do you know who's getting it the next time around? Who's getting it? Has that been selected?
President Trump Meets with the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026
The next one will be Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, with three matches at the beginning in South America: Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. And the one after will be Saudi Arabia in 2034.
Wow, that's great. Well, that's great. Well, we have the king coming, crown prince is coming tomorrow. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase the greatness of America and world-class athletic competition as we celebrate our nation's 250th year. The World Cup will also be an incredibly significant economic opportunity for countless American workers and businesses. It's expected to drive more than $30 billion, Gianni. I don't know about that. That sounds like a lot of money. Are you sure? How much does the country get out of that? $30 billion. Do we get like a percentage of the gross or anything? That's for negotiation. That's right. And it's going to create nearly 200,000 jobs for Americans. Since the creation of the White House FIFA Task Force earlier this year, Secretary Rubio's team at the State Department has worked tirelessly with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that soccer fans from all around the world are properly vetted and able to come to the United States next summer easily. Before I took office, it would often take a year to get a travel visa, but because of the administration's hard work, now in more than 80% of the world—think of that—the wait time for a visa is 60 days or less. For those who intend to join us for the World Cup, I strongly encourage you to apply right away. And I want to thank the FIFA Task Force and Secretary Rubio for the great job. Marco's doing a fantastic job in many ways, too. So I want to just thank you all for a great job, Marco. You're doing a great job, beyond even this. We're also creating what we're calling the FIFA Prioritized Appointment Scheduling System. That's a hard one for most people to remember, but it's there nonetheless. And this will allow World Cup ticket holders with long wait times to opt with FIFA for a prioritized interview. And I have directed my administration to do everything within the power to make the 2026 World Cup an unprecedented success. I think it's going to be the greatest. And we are setting records on ticket sales. Nobody's ever really... and FIFA's never... you know, if you look at the numbers, nobody's ever seen anything like the kind of numbers we're doing. The early ticket sales are through the roof and much of it is even sold out. So congratulations, Gianni. And I'd like to ask Gianni to say a few words. He's really done an incredible job. He's got unbelievable spirit and personality and talent and intelligence, I always like to say, because it's all a part of it. But the job you've done is based on what's happening unprecedented. Thank you, Gianni.
Thank you. Thank you, President. Thank you very much. I would like to start really by thanking you, Mr. President, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Noem, Andrew, your entire team for approving and making this very important announcement today. The FIFA Pass is being announced, the Prioritized Appointment Scheduling System—that's the way people will remember it. So if you have a ticket for the World Cup, you can have a prioritized appointment to get your visa because we said it the very first time we met, Mr. President: America welcomes the world. America will welcome the world here next year. We will have between six and seven million tickets sold for the matches. We will have between five and ten million people coming to America from all over the world to enjoy the World Cup. And with this FIFA Pass, we can make sure that those who buy a ticket, that are legitimate football fans or soccer fans, they can come and attend the World Cup in the best conditions, starting from getting their visa and then coming, of course, in the country to enjoy. You mentioned the economic impact, the 30 billion, 200,000 jobs, and this is just for the World Cup and we'll build on that to make soccer even greater here. You are the number one country in the world, the United States of America, Mr. President. You have to be the number one country as well in the number one sport in the world. So we have to work for that and we will do that, and the World Cup will be very, very significant in this respect. So big, big thank you to you, to the White House Task Force, to everyone involved. And we are celebrating next year not just the 250 years, but also the greatest and most inclusive World Cup ever. We will have six billion people watching. We have the draw coming up on the 5th of December here at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. One billion people watching the draw to find out who plays whom and where. We have 32 teams already qualified. Before or by tomorrow night, we'll have 42 out of 48 qualified. So a quarter of the world will be here, and we are looking very much forward. So thanks, thanks for the support, thanks for the great work, and always happy to be here at home, if I can say so.
Well, you are. And this is your beautiful trophy right there. So you are. And a big part of it, too. Marco, would you say a few words?
Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. First of all, for getting the games because this happened in your first term when the cup came here and it's a major undertaking. So we've deployed over 400 additional consular officers around the world to deal with that, in some cases doubling the size of the consular presence in our embassies in certain countries. And the good news now is that in about 80% of the world you can get an appointment within 60 days. It used to take, you know, half a year or longer, and now it's sometimes... it took over a year in places, for example, like Brazil and Argentina. You'd have to... it took over a year to get an appointment, now you can get in less than two months. So our advice to everybody is if you have a ticket for any of the games, you need to apply if you haven't done so as soon as possible. Don't wait till the last minute. Your ticket is not a visa, it doesn't guarantee admission to the U.S. It guarantees you an expedited appointment. You're still going to go through the same vetting. We're going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we're moving them up in the queue, we're moving them up faster. But my advice to everyone that's watching around the world is if you intend to come to the games, you have to have a ticket, you need to apply, apply as soon as possible. You're going to get your interview within, you know, six to eight weeks and move forward from there. Don't wait till the last minute to do it. Thanks.
Mr. Congressman, would you like to say something?
Well, first of all, Mr. President, none of this would have happened without your leadership securing this during your first term. I tell my colleagues all the time, this will be the largest sporting event in the history of the world. We expand from 32 to 48 teams for the first time ever. We're doing it with Mexico and Canada, but obviously the 11 host cities will be here in the United States and it's going to have a $30 billion impact economically in this country. And so it has been a team effort by everybody, but I also want to thank President Infantino and obviously you, Mr. President, your entire team, Andrew and Nick and everybody. It is going to be an unbelievable sporting event next summer.
It's going to be great. It's going to be great. Andrew, would you like to say something? And then we'll have somebody much more important speak.
Sure, much more important, and honestly without her work, without Secretary of State Rubio's work and the State Department, this would not happen, and without your leadership and your vision this would not have happened. I think two key points, one that the Secretary of State already highlighted, this is a welcoming message to the world without bypassing the safety and security procedures. It's so key to make sure that this World Cup is safe and secure and the White House Task Force is working every day to make sure that's the case. And also, as Congressman LaHood said, the economic benefits for American businesses, both small and large, from a $30 billion event like this. So really thanks to all the White House Task Force members, from Secretary Rubio to Secretary Noem, to notice the funding opportunities that went out to the cities and states last month were really key from the safety and security perspective, to Deputy Chief of Staff Luna who is integral in this whole process, to the White House Task Force members that are standing in the back of the room today and couldn't be here without your hard work. This would not have happened and I really can't thank you enough for really the best team I've ever been a part of. And also to FIFA, to the President Gianni Infantino, my good friend Carlos Cordeiro, your desire to make this World Cup the best yet, it's contagious. Every single day I come in and think what can we do to make this even better? And Mr. President, your vision more than anything. I think it takes a unique visionary to be able to go and see a sporting event and realize that this can be one of the greatest cultural events in world history. And I think there are very few people aside from the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, that can do that undertaking. So thanks.
Well, thank you very much. Kristi?
Mr. President, thank you for Andrew. Thank you for making him the head of our FIFA Task Force. He's fantastic, and Nick has been a rock star in facilitating all of our meetings, getting everybody together and making sure that we're prepared to host this event. And it's going to be the world's largest sporting event ever hosted, and it's happening under your leadership. So every department has been working, but the Department of Homeland Security is working on making sure people can travel here safely. They know that they're welcome to the United States, that each of these events will be a cooperative event with our cities to make sure that security needs are met. We put out over $600 million worth of grants to the 11 host cities that they'll have the advantage to partner on technologies and screening technologies, drone technology, counter-UAS as well will be implemented. So we'll be prepared to host it safely, but also with Marco's leadership at the State Department, making sure that people that come in on these tourist visas are coming in thoroughly vetted, just like anyone who would travel here, and they would come and enjoy our country and then they would go home, and go home in a timely manner. So we're excited about that, and we're excited to partner with you, Mr. President, on creating memories for people around the world that will make them not just fall in love with the United States but also fall in love with the sport of soccer.
Well thank you. How many games are there, Gianni, total?
Total 104 games, meaning 104 Super Bowls in one month. This is the magnitude of the event.
It is, it's incredible. And it's going to be the biggest sporting event we've ever had. It's like having 104 or even if you cut it in half, 50, 60 Super Bowls, right? That's okay too. Any questions?
Mr. President, can you just take us through this FIFA Pass idea that you guys are talking about here? How exactly is it going to work for ticket holders to this big event that the United States is hosting?
Well, I'll let my guys do that because they can do it much better, and either one of you, to Nick, would you like to talk?
Sure. Well, Mr. President, without your leadership, this would not happen, and we came in 10 months. We have a system that's going to welcome the world. The greatest host in the history of the world is going to host the world here. Basically, this system allows folks with a FIFA ticket purchased through FIFA to go through the FIFA portal that is then going to get prioritized with the State Department. So those appointments are going to be had before existing appointments so that people when they buy tickets, they have confidence that they're going to be able to come to the games and spend their money and travel this country and do all the things that they want to do and enjoy the game. So it's an incredible vision that the President executed here. Within 10 months we started with really not that much. And so this whole team here with the President's guidance has made this possible. It's going to be the greatest games in the history of the world.
Okay, do you have that? Yes, not too complicated. Daniel, please. Daniel?
Mr. President, yeah, you were talking about the economic impact of this, billions and billions of dollars. This builds on the framework and the groundwork that you built already for a major year in 2026: deregulation, energy independence, tax cuts, historic amounts of private sector investments. What do you envision for the 2026 economy when this event comes to town next year too on top of everything else?
Yeah, it's just a huge economic boon to this. You know, we had a little shutdown that was caused by the Democrats and this will make up for it many times over. So that's good, but I think it's the importance of the event all over the world. The world is watching, and it really is, it's like having many Super Bowls actually. Each game is almost a Super Bowl. Some of them are, I guess you could say, bigger than Super Bowls, I guess when you get to the finals it's... it's of that level or more. Worldwide, I think it's got to be more. So that's great. You know, when Gianni and I made the deal, I never thought I was going to be President because I was supposed to be retired by that time. And I got a little lucky. So I'm very honored to have it. And we have the Olympics coming, too. That'll be great. And the 250, 250 is going to be right out on the lawn. You're going to have a UFC event with Dana White and his people. He's going to have the greatest card they've ever assembled. I was talking to Dana White the other day and they're going to have the greatest card they've ever assembled, Gianni, so you'll be sitting up there with me, Darren. We'll be watching it. So right opposite the front door of the White House. That's going to be on June 14th. So it's really going to be an amazing period of time. But this is something very, very special. World Cup, all my life I've heard about it. Yeah.
Mr. President, I have a question about that as well, but can I just first ask, the health of the President's always news, your voice sounds a little rough, you feeling alright?
I feel great. I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something having to do with trade in the country and I straightened it out. But I blew my stack at these people, that's why.
Well, it sounds like there's a follow-up there, but can I ask you about Venezuela? You suggested you've made a decision about what you want to do next on Venezuela. I understand you don't want to tip your hand. Is there anything you're ready to rule out at this point? Are you ruling out U.S. troops on the ground?
No, I don't rule out that. I don't rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela. They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons. Nobody knows better than this young lady right here. She's done an incredible job with Tom Homan and all of your people. It's amazing. You know, we have a tight border right now. Nobody comes in. But we had millions of people pouring through. A year ago we had millions of people pouring through our border and many of them came from Venezuela, including Tren de Aragua, the gang. And I guess what I'm hearing, Kristi, is that's as bad a gang as there is anywhere in the world.
They're the worst. Absolutely, absolutely they are the worst. I mean, they're worse than MS-13. They are killers, they massacre people, they cut them up into pieces and they bury them in their communities where they grew up. They're horrible people.
And we had a lot of them, and many of them, pretty soon most of them are going to be out. But they set them up like we're a dumping ground. So I'm not in love with the people running Venezuela. I love Venezuela, I love the people of Venezuela, but what they've done to this country—and I really say this—what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country can never ever be forgotten.
You suggested Maduro wants to talk. Are you prepared to speak with him directly? Would you commit to doing that before you order strikes?
Yeah, I probably would talk to him, yeah. I talk to everybody.
Mr. President, Rebecca with Blaze News. So in a recent interview, you had made some remarks about H-1B visas. You said that there were certain talents that Americans needed to outsource to foreign workers. Could you clarify?
Until they learn that, yeah. Like for instance, if you're going to be making chips. We don't make chips too much here anymore, but we are going to be in a period of a year we're going to have a big portion of the chip market. But we have to train our people how to make chips because we used to do it and then foolishly we lost that business to Taiwan. Very, very foolishly because if they had a president that thought like I did, they would not have let that happen. But it's all coming back. I think we're going to have within a short few years we're going to and not because of the Chips Act. The Chips Act was a disaster for this country. We gave away billions of dollars to other countries and other locations and companies and all they did was rob our money. But because of tariffs, the chip makers are all coming back and I think within a very short period of time we're going to have maybe even the majority of the chip making in the world will be right in the United States where it should have been all along. But because we had people that didn't believe in tariffs—they believed in them, they didn't know how to use them—we would have had nobody leaving our country right now. And instead you have almost 100% of the chips are made in Taiwan. It's so disgraceful. The good news is it's all coming back. Yeah, please, the gentleman in the back.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to just follow up on Venezuela. In these talks with Maduro, is there anything that he could say or do that would allow you to feel like he could stay with your support? Is there anything that he could say that you would be okay, you can stay?
It's hard to say that. You know, the question's a little bit tricky. I don't think it was meant to be tricky. It's just that look, he's done tremendous damage to our country. Primarily because of drugs, but really because we have that problem with other countries too, but more than any other country, the release of prisoners into our country has been a disaster. He's emptied his jails, others have done that also. He has not been good to the United States. So we'll see what happens. At a certain period of time I'll be talking to him.
Mr. President, yesterday you mentioned your voice and you were shouting about trade. Which country in particular upset you was it India, was it...
No, no. A country wanted to try and renegotiate the terms of their trade deal, and I wasn't happy about it.
Well, which country was it? People want to know.
Why would I say that to you? Why would I... I can't believe it.
Mr. President, on the World Cup if we could... Seattle and the World Cup... the new mayor-elect of Seattle is a democratic socialist. Seattle has six World Cup games. How close are you going to be watching that city with the crime in that city?
Well, if we think, and I'll have to speak to Gianni about this, but if we think that the mayor of LA is incompetent, everybody knows that. Do you know that I was there I guess two years ago and we got all the federal permits taken care of, far more complex than the state permits and the city permits? And Lee Zeldin who's a superstar got everything taken care of. The toughest part, you know having to do with the fires that should have never happened if they let the water come in, it wouldn't have happened, right? Do you know that people aren't building their houses yet? I mean, can you imagine that? And if we didn't go in early on, Kristi, I think we can say it—well, the head of their police department said it—they were unable to handle, you would have had not only did you have the fires but you would have had total insurrection in Los Angeles. And if we didn't go in, and the head of you know the gentleman he said it and he said it strongly, he said we could not have done it without the federal government. We did a great job. If we think there's going to be the sign of any trouble, I would ask Gianni to move that to a different city. We have a lot of cities that are... would love to have it, number one, and will do it very safely. So if we think there's a problem in Seattle where you have a very, very liberal/socialist mayor, I would say you know it's certainly beyond just liberal. I watched her over the weekend, wow, that's another beauty we got there. But if we think there's going to be a problem, we'll... and Gianni can I say we will move? I don't think you're going to have this problem, but we're going to move the event to someplace where it's going to be appreciated and safe.
Yeah, well, I think safety and security is the number one priority for a successful World Cup. We can see today that people have trust in the United States when we see the ticket sales. We sold, I mean record-breaking figures of tickets, almost two million already sold out of two million that we've been selling. This is because people they know that they will be coming here and they will experience a safe and secure World Cup. This is the responsibility of course of the government, of Secretary Noem, of everyone, and obviously we will... I mean we will discuss, we are working together, we have a task force for this and we must ensure that all fans coming from abroad or being here, they can experience a celebration of coming together, of the sport, and this goes only with 100% safety.
We are communicating with all these mayors about what their responsibilities are. They know the safety and security of these events is their number one responsibility and will be their... the President's always there to keep Americans safe, but he also makes sure that people that know their responsibilities and that they're prepared to host these events and do so in a safe manner.
Mr. President, there was some news this morning from an Axios report that Senator Ted Cruz was laying the groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential run. Could I get your reaction to... would you could you see yourself supporting Senator...
Ted Cruz? He's always a friend of mine, I mean, you know I haven't spoken to him about that. It's a little early, it's three and a quarter years, that's a long time. But he's a very good guy, he's a very good friend of mine. You remember we had quite a campaign against Ted and it worked out quite nicely. Let's see where are we... oh, we're in the White House. But I'm not that surprised to hear that.
Mr. President, on the tariff exemptions you had some recently on a variety of different goods, and I'm wondering are you ruling out going forward no more exemptions on products? You're mentioning a disagreement you had earlier...
We're taking in hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff money. We're going to be issuing dividends later on, somewhere prior to, probably in the middle of next year a little bit later than that, of thousands of dollars for individuals of moderate income, middle income. We're going to pay down debt, you know we have a lot of money from tariffs. If we didn't have tariffs this nation would be in serious trouble and we've taken in tremendous amounts of money. And you know what's more important than that? We've protected our businesses from being raided like we did with the chip business. Now we're bringing them all back. But our... you know we had 100% of the chip industry and then they left, they went mostly to Taiwan and South Korea, but mostly Taiwan, and they have almost 100%. And we're going to have within a short period of time a big percentage of the chip business that's coming back because of tariffs, because they don't want to pay the tariffs, because the tariffs will be very steep if they don't come back and they've all committed to come back. As you probably heard Apple is now up to $700 billion. We have Nvidia at $600 billion. We have tremendous amounts of money pouring in. Our country has become amazing again and really, really rich again. I will say this: we have a decision we're waiting for, it's a very big decision. The numbers that we've taken in, if you talk about investment is trillions, not with a B, not with an M, millions, but trillions of dollars. I can't imagine having to give that money back on something that we're allowed to do. And the ones that are fighting us are countries, largely they're back in countries that have been ripping us off for years, using tariffs to rip us off. And now we're able to defend ourselves. It really is a matter of national security because economic security is national security. So I think you're going to see another thing happening, I think you'll see food prices they've come down very substantially since Biden, but I think you're going to see food prices coming down very substantially.
Saudi Arabia tomorrow you're hosting Saudi Arabia. Are you planning to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia, and also are you looking at doing a similar security agreement like you did with...
Yeah, no, I am planning to, yeah. They want to buy, they've been a great ally. They've got to like us very much. Look at the Iran situation what we did in terms of obliterating their nuclear capability. Yeah, I will say that we will be doing that, we'll be selling F-35s, yeah.
Mr. President, about something you posted on Truth Social last night, you urged House Republicans to vote in favor of this Epstein release bill they're going to vote on tomorrow. I just want to be super clear on your position. Do you want to see that pass the Senate? Would you sign that bill if it gets to your desk?
we have nothing to do with Epstein, the Democrats do. All of his friends were Democrats. You look at this Reid Hoffman, you look at Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, they went to his island all the time, and many others, they're all Democrats. All I want is I want for people to recognize the great job that I've done on pricing, on affordability, because we've brought prices way down but they're going way lower, on energy, on ending eight wars and another one coming pretty soon, I believe. We've done a great job, and I hate to see that deflect from the great job we've done. So I'm all for it. You know we've already given 50,000 pages, you do know that. Unfortunately, like with the Kennedy situation, with the Martin Luther King situation, not to put Jeffrey Epstein in the same category, but no matter what we give it's never enough. You know with Kennedy we gave everything and it wasn't enough. With Martin Luther King we gave everything and it's never enough. We've already given, I believe the number is 50,000 pages, 50,000 pages, and it's just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax as it pertains to the Republicans. Now, I believe that many of the people that we some of the people that we mentioned are being looked at very seriously for their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. But they were with him all the time. I wasn't. I wasn't at all. And we'll see what happens. What I just don't want Epstein to do is detract from the great success of the Republican Party, including the fact that the Democrats are totally blamed for the shutdown. You know they cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars with that at a lot of inconvenience. So I'm for any... I don't care, they can do whatever they want. We'll give them everything. Sure I would. Let the let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it. But don't talk about it too much because honestly, I don't want to take it away from us. It's really a Democrat problem. The Democrats were Epstein's friends, all of them. And it's a hoax, the whole thing is a hoax. And I don't want to take it away from really the greatness of what the Republican Party has accomplished over the last period of time. Yeah, please.
Mr. President, the shutdown is now over. And administration officials had said when the shutdown ends, they'll reevaluate the farmer relief. Now we have the deal with China. So is the administration still looking to dish out farmer relief now that the government is back open?