Featured Image Credit: DAZN
Topics: Donald Trump, Football, Politics, Sport
James Moorhouse
Donald Trump is now making headlines in the sporting world after some of his controversial actions at the Club World Cup final yesterday.
The US president has already been called out by Cole Palmer after strangely choosing to remain on stage as Chelsea claimed a surprise 3-0 win over Champions League winners PSG at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey yesterday (13 July).
Trump has shown a real interest in the international football competition, even inviting the Juventus squad to the White House earlier in the tournament and making them stand awkwardly in the background as he delivered a broadcast about bombing Iran - something US international Timothy Weah later branded as very 'weird'.
The 79-year-old was busy following yesterday's game, even after pretending he was part of the Chelsea squad, handing Palmer the player of the tournament award and also giving an interview to DAZN reporter Emily Austin, in which he took the opportunity to talk up how he brought back America from the 'dead' and slammed the previous administration.
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Trump dodged Austin's question about the US national team's future on the global stage and instead said: "We're doing very well on the other stage, on the political stage, on the financial stage."
In a rare comment that will have almost all of the UK behind him, he also joked about officially renaming soccer to football in the US.
Trump continued: "All the leaders said a year ago, 'your country was dead and now you have the hottest country in the world'... We were doing very badly as a country, we had an incompetent administration...
"But now we have a hot country, it's really hot, and I think the soccer's gonna be hot too."
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Speaking on the tournament, he added: "It's about unity, it's about everybody getting together and a lot of love between countries.
"I guess this is probably the most international sport, so it can really bring the world together."
People often say to keep politics out of sport, something which is pretty much impossible, but Trump's interview was taking things to the next level as he was given the platform by DAZN to talk politics in front of a huge audience, and social media users weren't happy.
Alfie House of the Daily Echo posted: "Why are DAZN broadcasting a political party interview with Donald Trump? This is absurd."
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Another X user posted: "This Trump interview is honestly embarrassing. DAZN & FIFA should be ashamed."
A third said: "No DAZN, it's not great to hear from President Trump."
And someone else took aim directly at Trump, penning: "Trump is just hitting on the blonde interviewer on DAZN while chatting his nonsense. What the hell is this??"
Football and Donald Trump... certainly the crossover nobody expected.