Trump doubles down, again suggests he could move World Cup out of Boston
President Donald Trump reiterated Wednesday his threat to pull next year’s World Cup out of Boston , one of several host cities across the nation, telling reporters, “We have the right to do that with FIFA.”
Trump’s comments came after Boston Mayor Michelle Wu dismissed his threat Wednesday morning .
“Much of it is locked down by contract so that no single person, even if they live in the White House currently, can undo it,” Wu said. “We’re in a world where for drama, for control, for pushing the boundaries … ongoing threats ... are issued to individuals and communities who refuse to back down and comply or be obedient to a hateful agenda.“
On Tuesday, Trump suggested his administration could act if Boston doesn’t “clean up its act.”
“I love the people of Boston, I know the games are sold out,” Trump said, referring to the matches set to be hosted at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. “Your mayor is not good, there are worse than her, at least she’s intelligent. She’s intelligent but she’s radical left.”
The Republican president called Wu a “bad mayor, who at least is a reasonable IQ person” on Wednesday, adding she has “got four areas that are, you know, wrong.”
“If we think there’s any reason that, whether it’s Boston or anywhere else, that they’re not doing their job, we’re going to take that, those World Cup games and move them someplace else,” he said, according to a clip posted on X containing video of a White House press conference shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday.
While Boston is the host city for the World Cup, matches would not be played in the state’s largest city, but would instead be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, noted the distinction Wednesday, according to The Boston Globe .
“First of all, he’s talking about the crime rate in Boston. The World Cup is going to be played in Foxborough, so he should check his geography before he does anything else,” Mariano told reporters, according to the newspaper.
Trump’s comments came after a reporter asked about recent violence in and around the city tied to street takeovers , including one in South Boston that saw a Boston police cruiser set on fire.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that if “somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni — the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal — and I would say, ‘Let’s move into another location’ and they would do that," referring to Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president.
But Wu, who has been a staunch opponent of the administration, said, “There’s no ability to take away the World Cup games, there’s no real threat when it comes to saying cities are so unsafe they can’t host the game.”
“We know we have a lot of work to do everyday in our community and we also know that we have made so much progress in already starting from the starting point of being the safest major city, continuing to double down on what works, which is bringing people together, staying focused every single day of the year and also making the investments that bring together community safety,” Wu continued.
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