Trump Said Soccer Should Be Called Football in America and the NFL Needs a New Name. He Might Actually Mean It.
Isla Montclair
At the FIFA World Cup 2026 draw in December 2025, Donald Trump said something that had the whole world talking. With the tournament now underway on US soil, the moment is worth understanding in full.
What Trump Said at the Kennedy Center and Why It Went Viral
Trump was on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for the official group stage draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the three countries. TheGrio
Mid-event, during a Q and A, Trump turned to one of the most persistent and genuinely confusing quirks of American sports culture: the fact that the sport the rest of the world calls football is called soccer in the United States, while a completely different sport holds the football name here.
“When you look at what has happened to football in the United States, it’s again soccer in the United States. We seem to never call it that because we have a little bit of conflict with another thing called football. But when you think about it, shouldn’t it really be called, I mean, this is football, there’s no question about it. We have to come up with another name for that. It really doesn’t make sense when you think about it. This is really football,” Trump said. EBONY
As the president spoke, players, officials and soccer fans in the audience could be heard cheering in agreement. EBONY
The clip circulated widely online at the time and then went viral again weeks later when NFL reporter Dov Kleiman shared it on his X account, drawing fresh attention as the World Cup prepared to open. Hollywood Unlocked
The Executive Action Suggestion That Made It More Than a Joke
Most people assumed Trump was being playful. But he did not stop there. Trump also floated the idea of using executive action to officially recognize soccer as “football” in the United States, claiming the change “could be made very easily.” Hollywood Unlocked
That is not an empty suggestion from this president. Trump has already used executive authority to rename geographic landmarks. He signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and pressed private mapmakers to follow suit. Whether renaming a sport falls within executive reach is a different question, but the pattern of behaviour makes the remark impossible to fully dismiss as a joke. Yahoo!
The NFL has carried its current name since 1922 and remains deeply embedded in American sports culture. The league has not commented on the suggestion and has shown no interest in any name change. The US national governing body for soccer was known as the United States Soccer Football Association until 1974, when it dropped “football” from its title to avoid the same confusion Trump is now describing. Hollywood UnlockedYahoo!
The FIFA Peace Prize That Happened the Same Night
The football renaming suggestion was actually the second remarkable thing Trump did at the Kennedy Center that evening. Trump was also awarded the first FIFA Peace Prize at the draw. FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Trump with the award, which included a trophy of golden hands holding a soccer ball along with a medal that Trump put on almost immediately. CNN
Infantino said in presenting the award: “You definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you have obtained it in an incredible way. You can always count, Mr President, on my support, on the support of the entire football community.” Yahoo!
Trump called it one of the great honours of his lifetime.
The reaction from the global football community was far less warm. Norwegian Football Association President Lise Klaveness called on FIFA to scrap its peace prize entirely, saying: “We don’t think it’s part of FIFA’s mandate to give such a prize. We think we have a Nobel Institute that does that job independently already.” The Washington Informer
Andrea Florence, Executive Director of the Sport and Rights Alliance, issued a sharp statement calling it “sportswashing on steroids,” arguing that giving the prize to Trump despite his administration’s record made a mockery of FIFA’s human rights commitments. Hong Kong Free Press
FIFA defended the award publicly but the Guardian reported that there is a growing sense of embarrassment among officials within FIFA about the decision. TheGrio
Trump’s Role in the 2026 World Cup Goes Well Beyond a Speech
This is not a one-off appearance. Trump’s administration has been deeply involved in shaping the 2026 World Cup on US soil. In March, Trump signed an executive order establishing a White House Task Force for the FIFA World Cup, with Trump serving as chair and Vice President JD Vance as vice chair. CNN
The United States is home to 11 of the 16 host cities. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19, 2026. The championship match will take place July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where Trump is confirmed to present the World Cup trophy to the winning team. CNNCNN
Fox analyst and former US national team player Alexi Lalas has dubbed Trump “the soccer president.” Whether that title reflects genuine football passion or political opportunity is a question the tournament’s final weeks will likely answer. Open Magazine
What is already clear is that the line between the world’s biggest sporting event and American politics has never been as thin as it is right now, and the man at the centre of both made it thinner the moment he stood on a Kennedy Center stage and told the NFL it might need to find a new name.
Sources:
Trump suggests NFL should get new name so soccer can be called football, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/trump-says-america-should-change-footballs-name-it-really-doesnt-make-sense
President Trump wants to rename American football: We have to come up with another name for the NFL, Yahoo Sports: https://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/article/president-trump-wants-to-rename-american-football-we-have-to-come-up-with-another-name-for-the-nfl-181710848.html
Donald Trump suggests NFL should change its name so soccer can be called “football” in America, Gridiron Heroics via MSN: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/donald-trump-suggests-nfl-should-change-its-name-so-soccer-can-be-called-football-in-america/ar-AA25yIUl We have to come up with another name: Donald Trump makes surprising NFL proposal during football debate, Sportskeeda: https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/news-we-come-another-name-donald-trump-makes-surprising-nfl-proposal-football-debate
