Donald Trump warns he’ll move World Cup soccer games out of ‘unsafe’ cities

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he might seek to move games in the 2026 FIFA World Cup — one of the world’s biggest sporting events — away from some of the U.S. cities currently planning to host, due to his concerns about safety.

It would appear the president has something in common with TV producers, out-of-state NFL fans and others, conflating San Francisco, the city by the bay, with Santa Clara, the home of Levi’s Stadium, some 45 miles south, where the games are scheduled to take place in June and July next year.

But Trump’s comments that he might decide to move games out of cities he views as “even a little bit dangerous” created at least a little bit of concern about whether the schedule will stay as set.

Trump made the comment during a gathering of reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, and was asked specifically about games to be played in the Seattle and San Francisco areas.

He said the cities are “run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing,” and added that “if any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup” then “we won’t allow it.”

The president’s views on San Francisco could mean an economic loss for Santa Clara despite their distance: Levi’s Stadium is 44 miles south of downtown San Francisco.

It was also unclear if the threat about the World Cup, in summer 2026, would similarly mean that the president would seek to have Super Bowl LX – set for Levi’s Stadium on February 8. 2026 — moved elsewhere. Officials with the Bay Area Host Committee could not immediately be reached for comment.

Santa Clara city officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment Friday, and a message left for Santa Clara police Chief Cory Morgan was not returned immediately.

As dangerous cities go, Santa Clara doesn’t jump to the front of the list in the Bay Area. Through August, the city had not recorded a homicide in 2025. It had recorded reports of 13 rapes or sexual assaults and 42 robberies, according to city records.

In San Francisco through August, there had been 15 recorded homicides, 128 rapes or sexual assaults; and 1,111 robberies. In the city, homicides were down 32%, rapes or sexual assaults were down 22% and robberies were down 24% from the same time in 2024.

Trump did not comment on the logistics of switching the venues. But he cited his policies, in particular the National Guard’s presence in Washington D.C., that he claimed were making the country safer ahead of the World Cup and said he wouldn’t hesitate to do something similar again.

“As you probably know, we’re going into Memphis, and we’re going into some other cities,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. “Very soon, we’re going we’re going to go into Chicago. It will be safe for the World Cup. If I think it isn’t safe, we’ll move it into a different city, absolutely.”

Chicago is not set to host any games for the 2026 World Cup. Games are scheduled in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle.

The every-four-years spectacle runs from June 11 to July 19 and is also being hosted by Canada and Mexico, the first time in the event’s history that three nations have jointly hosted. It’s the first time the men’s World Cup has been played in the United States since 1994.