“As you probably know, we’re going into Memphis and we’re going into some other cities. Very soon we’re going into Chicago. It will be safe for the World Cup. If I think it isn’t safe, we’ll move into a different city, absolutely. It’s actually a very fair question. If I think it’s not safe, we’re going to move it out of that city.”
“So if any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup, or for the [2028] Olympics, you know where they have Olympic overthrow. But for the World Cup in particular, because they’re playing in so many cities, we won’t allow it. We’ll move it around a little bit. But I hope that’s not going to happen.”
Trump interspersed his comments with updates on the crime situation in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
His remarks followed a question from a reporter about “immigration, crime and the World Cup” and about cities pushing back from his immigration and deportation policies and crime initiatives and whether World Cup games could move from cities like San Francisco and Seattle if they didn’t cooperate with his crime policy.
“Well, that’s an interesting [question],” said Trump, “I guess. But we’re going to make sure they’re safe. They’re run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing.”