Trump says would remove World Cup games from US cities on safety concerns

VIDEO SHOWS: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IN WHITE HOUSE, SOUNDBITE FROM TRUMP  RESENDING WITH COMPLETE STORY. SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES  (OCTOBER 15, 2025) (UNRESTRICTED POOL – Access all) 1. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP DURING OVAL OFFICE EVENT 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING: JOURNALIST (OFF CAMERA): ""…talked about having some distaste for Boston recently. Is this one of those cities that you might be looking into? And can you give us a hint about other cities that you might be… (TRUMP ASKING "WHERE?") Boston."  TRUMP: "Boston has a bad mayor who at least is a reasonable IQ person. You know, most of them are low IQ, but and they're so bad. I mean, what's going on in Chicago is just, you'd think the guy would say, 'hey, look, we have a problem, Mr. President. Could you come in and straighten it out?' I could have that, we could have that done in a month if we had their cooperation. It's going to be done anyway. But we could have it done in a month. Yeah. Boston. She's got four areas that are, you know, wrong. And, you know, somebody said, would we take, would we think about taking the World Cup away from Boston if they don't straighten it out? The answer is yes. We have the right to do that with FIFA. So, if we think that LA is going to be bad or we think that applies a little bit to the Olympics, too, but we'll talk about FIFA first. You know, FIFA is very hot. 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." 3. TRUMP DURING OVAL OFFICE EVENT  STORY:     U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (October 15) that he would consider removing 2026 World Cup matches from cities that had safety concerns.      Trump's comments came after he criticised Boston's local government on its record of public safety.      Seven World Cup games are slated for Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, about 30 miles southwest of Boston, as part of the 2026 tournament co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.     FIFA finalized the 16 host cities and match allocations in 2022.     Tournament control ultimately rests with FIFA. Earlier this month, FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani reiterated the body's authority over venue decisions: "It's FIFA's tournament, FIFA's jurisdiction. FIFA makes those decisions."     The first match in Boston is scheduled for June 13, featuring teams from Group C on Day 3 of the tournament.     (Production: Paul Vieira) 

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)