Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin 'may' come to attend 2026 World Cup Jesse Yomtov, USA TODAY August 23, 2025 at 2:52 AM Despite Russia being banned from FIFA competitions, Donald Trump said he thinks that Vladimir Putin will attend the 2026 World Cup cohosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
- - Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin 'may' come to attend 2026 World Cup
Jesse Yomtov, USA TODAY August 23, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Despite Russia being banned from FIFA competitions, Donald Trump said he thinks that Vladimir Putin will attend the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Aug. 22 to announce that the draw for the World Cup would be held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Trump showed off a photo of himself and the Russian president from the historic summit in Alaska and suggested that Putin would come to next summer's tournament.
Trump said he believes Putin "will be coming, depending on what happens" but did not elaborate beyond reiterating that he "may be coming and he may not, depending on what happens."
President Trump holds up photo sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin: "I'm going to sign this for him ... That's a man named Vladimir Putin who I believe will be coming (to 2026 FIFA World Cup) depending on what happens." pic.twitter.com/K3nGniRbPN
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 22, 2025
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, standing beside Trump as he made the remarks in the Oval Office, did not comment on the possibility of Putin attending.
Russia was banned from competing in FIFA and UEFA competitions following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and it didn't participate in qualification for the 2026 tournament.
Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup and Putin took on a large public-facing role during the festivities. He spoke at the opening ceremony and was on the field for trophy presentations following France's win over Croatia in the final.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says Vladimir Putin 'may' attend 2026 World Cup in USA
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