They Hoped the World Cup Would Flop. Then America Threw the Biggest One Ever.

Three and a half million fans. Sold-out stadiums from New Jersey to Los Angeles. The first two weeks with few of the logistical disasters critics had warned about. By any normal measure, the 2026 FIFA World Cup — co-hosted by the United States under President Donald Trump (R) — has been a runaway success. And that, for a slice of the American left, turned out to be the problem.

On June 25, Politico published a piece headlined “Democrats grapple uncomfortably with World Cup success.” Inside it, a veteran Democratic strategist said the quiet part on the record: there had been “a little bit of like liberal wishcasting that this would maybe be a disaster to sort of stick it to Trump.” The tournament’s triumph, the piece reported, had “forced Democrats who had criticized” Trump’s role “to grudgingly reconsider.”

This is a TDS Watch entry, so the rule is simple: receipts, not adjectives. Below are the actual named people, the actual quotes, and the actual numbers — including the Democrats who broke ranks to cheer, because an honest account names them too. The phenomenon is real, it is on the record, and it does not need embellishment.

• 3.6 million — fans who attended World Cup matches in the first two weeks alone, with 44 games still to play — on pace to shatter the 3.5M record set at USA 1994 · Source: Politico; Townhall
• 6.5 million — total attendance FIFA projects across the tournament, the largest in World Cup history · Source: FIFA/WTO economic study
• $30,500,000,000 — projected US gross economic output from the 2026 World Cup — about $17.2B in GDP and 185,000 jobs · Source: FIFA/WTO study
• 'Liberal wishcasting' — Democratic strategist Rob Flaherty's on-record admission that some on the left hoped the tournament 'would maybe be a disaster to sort of stick it to Trump' · Source: Politico
• Mexico & Senegal — who two NY-13 Democrats — Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and challenger Darializa Chevalier — said they were rooting for over Team USA on live TV · Source: Fox/OutKick; PIX11
• 'Ugly Americans' — USA Today columnist Nancy Armour's verdict that the US had already 'lost' the World Cup and shown itself 'a hateful and greedy nation' — before a ball was kicked · Source: Fox/OutKick; USA Today

The single most-quoted line of the week did not come from a Republican operative. It came from Rob Flaherty, a Democratic digital strategist and a soccer fan, talking to Politico after attending the U.S. group-stage match against Australia. Asked about the mood on his side of the aisle, Flaherty conceded there had been “a little bit of like liberal wishcasting that this would maybe be a disaster to sort of stick it to Trump.” His follow-on was almost wistful: “It hasn’t yet been.”

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That is the whole story in two sentences, and it is why it traveled. A partisan operative admitting on the record that allies had been hoping a global event hosted in their own country would fail — purely so the failure could be hung around an opponent’s neck — is the kind of candor that usually stays in group chats. Politico’s framing did the rest: a headline about Democrats “grappling uncomfortably” with American success became, for conservative readers, a confession.

The wishcasting wasn’t abstract. On June 16, during a PIX11 forum for the NY-13 Democratic primary, two candidates were asked a softball: who are you rooting for to win the World Cup? Five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) answered “Mexico.” His primary challenger, Darializa Chevalier (D) — backed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) — said “Senegal.” Neither named Team USA. The clip went viral, and the backlash was immediate.

A fair caveat belongs here: Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic and represents a heavily immigrant district, and personal soccer loyalties are not a crime against the republic. Plenty of Americans hold a second footballing country in their hearts. But the optics — two people campaigning to represent Americans in Congress, declining on camera to root for the American team during an American-hosted World Cup — landed exactly as you’d expect. Conservative commentator Guy Benson and the account End Wokeness amplified the clip to millions of views.

The “hoping it fails” mood didn’t appear overnight. For months before kickoff, attitudes toward the tournament split along partisan lines, with Democrats confronting FIFA and the Trump administration over high ticket prices, shortfalls in public funding, and the government’s posture toward foreign visitors — including Trump’s suggestion that Iran’s team should skip the tournament “for their safety.” Those were legitimate policy fights. But some commentary went further, predicting the event itself was doomed to be a national embarrassment.

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The cleanest example came from USA Today columnist Nancy Armour, who wrote on June 11 — before a single match — that no run by the U.S. team could redeem the event. “The U.S. men’s national team could make a historically deep run and the tournament could be filled with wondrous goals,” she wrote, but “it will not change the fact that we have shown ourselves to be a hateful and greedy nation.” Her verdict: “instead, we chose to be ugly Americans.” The column declared the World Cup lost before it began.

“The U.S. men's national team could make a historically deep run... it will not change the fact that we have shown ourselves to be a hateful and greedy nation. That will be the legacy, and the shame, of this World Cup.”

Nancy Armour, USA Today, June 11, 2026 — before the tournament began

Here is the consequence axis, and it is unkind to the doom prophecy. In the first two weeks, roughly 3.6 million fans passed through the turnstiles — with 44 games still to come — putting the tournament on track to obliterate the 3.5 million attendance record set when the U.S. last hosted in 1994. FIFA projects 6.5 million total attendance, the largest World Cup ever. The U.S. men won their group, beating Australia 2-0 to top Group D.

The money matched the crowds. A joint FIFA-WTO study projected the 2026 World Cup would generate roughly $30,500,000,000 in U.S. gross economic output, about $17,200,000,000in added GDP and some 185,000 jobs. On the screens, the numbers were just as large: a single group-stage match between Brazil and Morocco peaked above 20 million concurrent viewers on YouTube alone. Whatever one thinks of FIFA’s ticket pricing or the politics around it, “national embarrassment” is not what the data describes.

Accountability journalism cuts both ways, and not every Democrat played the part. The most full-throated booster of the tournament in the Politico piece was a Democrat: Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), who represents Philadelphia, a host city. “I will do everything I can to get the World Cup back here as soon as possible,” Boyle said. “It’s been a remarkable success.” He pointedly framed his praise around the local host committees rather than the White House — but he praised it, on the record, without hedging.

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Others attended without quite cheering. Govs. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Josh Shapiro (D-PA) showed up to matches, and even New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Mayor Mamdani — earlier critics — softened as the event succeeded, per Politico. The tell, as the report noted, was that few among them could bring themselves to say anything that sounded like praise for the people putting on the event. Showing up is easy. Crediting a success that happens on your opponent’s watch is the part that stuck in the throat.

Trump, for his part, has treated the tournament as a victory lap from the start. He claimed more than a billion people watched the December 2025 final draw in Washington, where FIFA President Gianni Infantino handed him an inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize.” Infantino has since confirmed that Trump will help present the trophy at the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — a break from the usual protocol in which the FIFA president hands it over alone. The political symbolism is unmissable, and that is exactly why a flop would have been so satisfying to his critics.

Strip away the spin and the documented core stands on its own. A Democratic strategist admitted on the record that some on the left engaged in “liberal wishcasting” that the World Cup “would maybe be a disaster to sort of stick it to Trump.” Two congressional Democrats declined on camera to root for Team USA. A national columnist declared the tournament a moral failure before it kicked off. And then the event became the most-attended, highest-grossing World Cup in history, on American soil, on Trump’s watch.

None of that requires inventing a villain. The legitimate criticisms — ticket prices, visa policy, public cost — are real, and so are the Democrats like Brendan Boyle who simply called a success a success. But the through-line is the thing worth naming: when opposition to a man hardens into hoping your own country’s showcase will fail, the politics has stopped being about policy. The final is July 19. The numbers, for now, are the story — and they are not the ones the doomsayers predicted.

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Last updated June 26, 2026