President Donald Trump handed Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, the role of executive director of the task force overseeing the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
At the first meeting of the task force on Tuesday, Trump said the younger Giuliani is going to “be great.”
“I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a highly competitive golfer, which I mean, really good. And he’s also a highly competitive person, and he loves what we’re doing,” said Trump, according to Politico.
Trump also revealed Tuesday that senior Infantino adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs staffer, would be a senior adviser on the task force.
The U.S. won the hosting duties for the 2026 tournament alongside Mexico and Canada during Trump’s first term in the White House. Eleven American cities will host games, as will three in Mexico and two in Canada.
“Together, we will ensure that the 2026 World Cup will be the best-run soccer tournament the world has ever seen,” said Trump, referring to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “This is going to blow every other tournament you did. You’re gonna say, ‘how terrible a job you did in the past, because this is so much better,’ Gianni. This is going to blow ‘em all away.”
FIFA has said that at least five million fans are expected to attend the tournament from across the globe. Even as many prospective tourists have canceled their trips to the U.S. amid stories of people being detained at the border, Vice President JD Vance insisted at the meeting that the administration would continue to adhere to its strict immigration policies.
“I know we’ll have visitors, probably from close to 100 countries. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the game. But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home, otherwise they’ll have to talk to [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem,” warned Vance.
On Monday, Trump announced that the 2027 NFL Draft would be held in Washington, D.C., on the National Mall. He has also celebrated the building of a 65,000-seat football stadium for the Washington Commanders, which would open in 2030 if the D.C. council approves it.
During Trump’s first term, Andrew Giuliani was a special assistant to the president and associate director of the Office of Public Liaison. In that role, he managed the visits of winning sports teams to the White House.
In 2022, he ran for governor of New York, losing the Republican primary to former Rep. Lee Zeldin, now the director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
His father was deeply involved in pressuring Ukrainian officials during Trump’s first term in the White House to open investigations into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, regarding international business dealings. Trump threatened to hold up American weapons deliveries to Ukraine if President Vlodymyr Zelensky did not launch a baseless probe into Hunter Biden’s activities, which resulted in Trump’s first impeachment.
Rudy Giuliani was also a key spokesperson for the baseless Trump and MAGA claim that the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost was rigged. Giuliani was later ordered to pay $148 million in defamation damages after he repeatedly accused a mother and her daughter of vote manipulation in their jobs as Georgia poll workers.
The U.S. lost a previous bid to Qatar in 2010 to host the 2022 World Cup. In 2015 the U.S. Department of Justice charged a total of 30 FIFA officials with fraud, money-laundering and racketeering, among other crimes, including soliciting bribes for choosing particular World Cup venues. Nearly everyone charged was found guilty, or pleaded guilty to the charges.
The 2026 World Cup is scheduled to run from June 11 to July 19, with the final set be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
