Gulati: President Trump fully supportive of 2026 FIFA World Cup bid

U.S. Soccer head Sunil Gulati affirmed to reporters Monday that the 2026 FIFA World Cup joint bid between the United States, Canada, and Mexico has the full approval of President Donald Trump, despite him having publicly pushed the idea of building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

"We have the full support of the United States government in this project," Gulati said, according to Bryan Graham of the Guardian. "The president of the United States is fully supportive and encouraged us to have this joint bid. He is especially pleased that Mexico is part of this bid. And that's in the last few days we've gotten further encouragement on that.

"We're not at all concerned about some of the issues that other people may raise. We looked at bidding alone and decided in the end we wanted to bid with our partners in North America, and we have a strong encouragement from President Trump to that very end."

While Trump's approval will certainly make the bidding process easier for the three federations, the 2026 World Cup will ultimately fall out of Trump's presidential tenure, unless the newly-elected commander-in-chief opts not to run in 2020 and instead runs again successfully in 2024.

But proposed policy that could be enacted during the Trump administration - including the actual building of a wall along the United States' southern border with Mexico - could prove troublesome for relations between the two nations in the years to come.