John Rachal's Blog

Trump and his administration span the entire moral spectrum from depraved to execrable. I continue to be astonished, befuddled, amazed that so many people, including people whom I consider friends, can still support this man. I do realize that they are addicted to the false “news,” sophistries, tendentiousness, and lies of Fox News and never pierce its veil to see the corruption, degradation, and sometimes the sheer evil of his administration that lie beneath. And yet I occasionally wonder what would it take for Trump’s most ardent adorers to repudiate him. The 35% to 40%  who still approve of his presidency have already at least heard fragments of his corruption, including his $2.2 billion grifted income since taking office the second time; have seen his destruction of the east wing of the White House; have imagined themselves dining in his gilded and glorious ballroom; have heard and recognized at least a couple of his lies; have paid and will continue to pay at the pump for a foolish and very expensive war he started and has lost; have at least heard of and possibly seen videos of his gestapo (ICE) killing American citizens; and have shrugged off countless other abominations, not least of all his “I rule the nation and the world” (yes, an actual quote) megalomania.

Yet they offer no rebuke, no reproach. So what would it take? Would seeing him with their own eyes take a sub-machine gun and mow down a group of children on a playground do it? Or would at least some of them say that that is a small price to pay for the glory of having the greatest man in history as their leader?

The American president has managed to despoil the American soccer team by infusing it with the excremental stench of his administration. In its penultimate game of the World Cup, the team’s best scorer was given a red card which, by FIFA rules, suspended him from the rest of the game and from the team’s next game. Trump, who “know[s] about these things,” called the FIFA president, a man who has previously sought to curry favor with Trump, and asked him to “review” the call—totally inappropriate from the get-go. If FIFA overturned the call, the suspended player could play against Belgium Monday night. Magically, and for the first time in World Cup play since 1962, a red card was overturned.

The American team coach did not ask the president to intervene. By his action, Trump contrived, with the complicity and cowardice of the FIFA president, to effectively put the team in the role of cheater and gain the enmity of every other soccer team in the world. No objective soccer fan (admittedly a rara avis) could possibly regard the team with anything other than contempt. Trump, by yet again sticking his nose where it does not belong, managed to deprive the team of an honorable win if it beat Belgium and cast it as pathetic cheater if it still did not win despite its advantage with the illegitimately overturned penalty. In fact, America did lose to Belgium 4-1.

The result is that a good American team which made the round of 16 for the first time in twenty-four years will most likely be remembered not for its good play in the 2026 World Cup but for the American president blackening its reputation. 7/7/26