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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barney Ronay

Trump is avoiding the World Cup because it’s packed with good things he doesn’t like

Malik Tillman of the USA celebrates a goal, Kylian Mbappé in action, Donald Trump holds the World Cup trophy in the Oval Office and Vladimir Putin gives Trump a football in Helsinki in 2018
Malik Tillman of the USA celebrates a goal, Kylian Mbappé in action, Donald Trump holds the World Cup trophy in the Oval Office and Vladimir Putin gives Trump a football in Helsinki in 2018. Composite: AP and Getty Images

At 4.38pm on 28 June Donald Trump dropped a Truth. Nothing unusual in that. Trump’s Truth Social feed is relentless and ever-giving.

That same afternoon he also Truthed at 3.58pm, 3.59pm, and twice at 7.42pm, all in the same instantly recognisable, weirdly cartoonish tone, as if a giant maize-based salted snack from a jaunty 1970s TV advert has been pumped full of voodoo and vitamins and propped up behind a lectern to explain geopolitics to the world, but only in the kind of words you might use while arguing with your nine-year-old sister.

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