New York New Jersey Stadium: There are no prizes for guessing who Donald Trump is supporting in the World Cup final.
The US president – a sports fan, but not a soccer aficionado – has long been close with Argentina’s right-wing libertarian leader, Javier Milei.
“He’s MAGA all the way,” Trump said when the two met at the White House last year, just a few days before Anthony Albanese’s visit. He even handed Argentina a $US20 billion ($28.6b) emergency credit swap, although little of it was ultimately used.
Milei has been something of a regular in Washington, too – he joined Elon Musk on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference last April, where he gifted the world’s richest man a chainsaw for use in cutting government largesse.
So there’s a fairly strong bromance between the two conservative presidents. But one can’t say the same for Spain, which is in the Trump doghouse.
At the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, Trump called Spain a “terrible partner” and told secretary-general Mark Rutte: “Spain doesn’t agree to anything, and you shouldn’t carry them.”
He also instructed his treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to sever all US trade with Spain. “I don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
And yet, trade continues as normal, as it did the last time Trump made such threats. And by the end of the NATO conference, he had softened a lot, telling reporters on Air Force One that Madrid “came back all the way today”.
The main source of Trump’s beef with Spain is its refusal to sign up to a new NATO target – at Trump’s insistence – of spending 5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. That comprises 3.5 per cent on core military spending and another 1.5 per cent on related matters such as road or cyber infrastructure.
Madrid secured an exemption that would see its defence expenditure capped at 2.1 per cent of GDP.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez – who, unlike Argentina’s Milei, is attending the World Cup final – is a left-wing leader who heads the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and is also the president of Socialist International.
He has recognised a Palestinian state, described Israel’s campaign in Gaza as “genocide”, and denounced Trump’s capture of then Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a violation of international law. In short, Sánchez is something of an anti-Trump.
Which will make it all the more awkward if Trump – who is supposed to be doing the honours at the end of today’s match – has to hand the World Cup trophy to Spain.
One outspoken Spanish player, Borja Iglesias, joked that he would shake Trump’s hand at the ceremony if only to avoid jail.
“I don’t want to go to prison,” he said. “I hope to greet him at a time when we are all very happy, and that it passes very quickly, and I can forget about it.”
There’s also the question of what kind of welcome Trump will get from the Spanish fans in the house, and what kind of spectacle he will be on stage.
Last year, when Trump was on hand to present the FIFA Club World Cup trophy to winners Chelsea, he lingered on stage awkwardly and even took part in Chelsea’s customary celebrations.
His buddy, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, eventually pulled him away.
Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
