On Friday, President Trump mentioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin might attend the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Trump displayed a photograph of himself with Putin during a meeting in the Oval Office.
While hosting FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Trump announced that the World Cup draw would take place at the Kennedy Center in December. At one point, he retrieved a photograph from his desk drawer.
“Someone sent me a picture from someone who wants to be involved very much. He has shown great respect to me and our country, though not necessarily to others. I’ll autograph this for him. Anyways, I thought you all might want to see it. It’s a photo of Vladimir Putin,” Trump explained while showing the image of him and Putin together.
“Depending on how things unfold, Putin might make an appearance. We have many developments occurring in the upcoming weeks, but I found the picture quite nice, especially the one of Putin. It was good of them to send it to me,” Trump continued.
Trump did not clarify if Putin would attend matches in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico, the three nations co-hosting the World Cup. The U.S. is slated to hold the bulk of the over 100 scheduled soccer games.
The photograph was taken when the president and Putin met a week ago in Alaska to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump on Friday also said he talked to Putin recently and told him he wasn’t “happy” about a Russian strike on a U.S. factory in Ukraine on Thursday.
“I’ve expressed my displeasure to him about the situation. I’m not pleased with anything regarding that conflict,” Trump stated. “I’m dissatisfied, but we’ll see what unfolds. Over the next two weeks, the direction of events will become clearer, and I hope for a satisfactory outcome.”
The president also spoke to Putin earlier in the week when he went into another room to call him during a meeting with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
After Trump hosted the group at the White House and called Putin, he said he would work on a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky. The Russians have since sent signals that it intends to slow-walk talks with Ukraine about ending the war and expressed doubt about some early prospects of a peace deal.
