{"id":461,"date":"2026-06-23T10:38:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=461"},"modified":"2026-06-23T10:38:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:38:36","slug":"the-world-cup-is-showing-what-trump-cant-destroy-about-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=461","title":{"rendered":"The World Cup is showing what Trump can\u2019t destroy about America"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>My new favorite show is video after video from World Cup tourists who are in awe of America. The 2026 World Cup has become a global love fest for the US \u2014 at a time when the rest of the world has plenty of reasons to dislike us.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=459\">Trump\u2019s Reflecting Pool debacle deepens<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A World Cup hosted by the United States under the xenophobic Trump administration had all the makings of a disaster. And President Donald Trump\u2019s policies have made their mark: an Iraqi player was detained at the airport for seven hours, a Somali referee was turned away entirely, and players from the Global South have openly said that their families and supporters have had to stay at home because of the US\u2019s punitive travel policies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>At the same time, World Cup tourists from around the world appear to be delighted with America, with its sheer bigness, its creature comforts, its shiny red fire engines and bright yellow school buses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cOH WOW this has just changed my entire way of thinking and I won\u2019t ever look back,\u201d posted a Scottish man over a video of a water bottle overflowing with ice cubes pouring down from that exotic machine, the ice maker. (While common in America, they are much less in use in the rest of the world.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A Norwegian woman dressed in an enormous Viking hat told a local New Hampshire news station that she loves tailgating in the parking lot. \u201cIt\u2019s a great part of American culture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Other visitors have expressed joy and astonishment over personal-sized ice cream cakes in the freezer aisle, massive milk jugs at Walmart, and the endless flow of free soda refills at restaurants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>These videos are extremely charming, and a relief for the Americans who are worried about our international reputation. They\u2019re also a reminder that America\u2019s cultural influence runs deep across the globe. The whole world watches American movies and American TV shows and listens to American music. People recognize yellow school buses from <em>Forrest Gump<\/em>, red fire engines from Marvel movies, tailgate parties from <em>The Simpsons<\/em>. For some overseas visitors, coming to the US seems to feel like meeting Mickey Mouse in person.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>That\u2019s because of soft power, a diplomatic tool that the US has historically been very good at, says Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, a senior lecturer at the University of Bonn Institute for Political Science in Germany. Soft power describes a nation\u2019s ability to get what it wants from others, not through the coercive power of the military or economic pressure, but through subtler means. \u201cAt the very core of soft power is attraction, the power to attract others to do things you want them to do,\u201d Ohnesorge tells Vox. It\u2019s been a key factor in America\u2019s global success, he adds. \u201cThe US usually is one of, if not <em>the<\/em>, major point of reference, when it comes to historical examinations or examples of how successfully to use soft power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=457\">The race splitting Zohran Mamdani\u2019s coalition<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>It\u2019s not just pop culture that has made the US a soft power force to be reckoned with. The US tech sector developed some of the most important innovations of the past few decades, from the iPhone to mRNA vaccines. Our university system attracts some of the most talented students from every other country in the world (though international student enrollment has dropped since Trump\u2019s immigration policies have gone into effect). In the days before DOGE, US foreign aid saved about 3.3 million lives a year. If soft power is about attraction, the US has historically had a lot to draw the rest of the world in \u2014 at least, it did until Trump began attacking those very assets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cSome of the basic instruments of US soft power that were quite successful\u2026especially during the Cold War years, were defunded,\u201d says Ohnesorge. \u201cVoice of America, USAID.\u201d What DOGE didn\u2019t kill, the Trump administration has undermined or undone via lawsuits and funding cuts; Ohnesorge adds to his list \u201cattacks on institutions of higher education, which are also quintessential\u2026lighthouses of US soft power.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Ohnesorge argues that Trump has his own form of soft power, one different from the pluralistic and cosmopolitan version America usually champions. \u201cTo some people in your country, in my country, and all over the world, Trump\u2019s politics and policies are quite attractive,\u201d Ohnesorge says. \u201cThis is why he got elected in the first place. This is why he got reelected.\u201d But Trump\u2019s bullying, nativist approach is polarizing \u2014 whereas something like the World Cup, which celebrates international unity, brings people together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Ultimately, Trump cannot overwrite the welcoming spirit that is America at its best. Immigrant diaspora communities have united to celebrate their ancestral teams. People in Lawrence, Kansas, have developed a love affair with the Algerian soccer team they are hosting, with locals waving Algerian flags, donning Algerian scarves, and papering the streets with specially commissioned flyers. The local university marching band learned the Algerian national anthem. \u201cI want to say thank you to Team Algeria for choosing our hometown, Lawrence, Kansas,\u201d an elderly man told Algerian newscasters in one viral video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cSoft power is a thing that rises from society, and usually it\u2019s strongest when it\u2019s not directed from the top,\u201d says Ohnesorge. \u201cThese acts of everyday kindness, openness, and things like that, that are societal or maybe even apolitical. These are the ones that are most successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Trump\u2019s xenophobia is part of America, but so, too, is the impulse to welcome people from the rest of the world. That\u2019s the soft power tool that has helped generations of immigrants make a home in the US, and it is part of why America has been such a dominant world force for so long.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Trump\u2019s destructive policies have endangered a lot of the cultural exports that make America attractive to the rest of the world, but it\u2019s worth remembering that the appeal of the US isn\u2019t just our movies and our university system. It\u2019s also the people who live here who want to be good hosts and good neighbors to the rest of the world \u2014 and Trump can\u2019t get rid of those people, or these shared values, with the stroke of a pen.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=455\">How the Antichrist infiltrated politics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><span>See More<!-- -->:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Culture<\/li>\n<li>FIFA World Cup<\/li>\n<li>Politics<\/li>\n<li>Sports<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American soft power looks different under the Trump administration. Can the World Cup bring it back?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The World Cup is showing what Trump can\u2019t destroy about America - American Living Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=461\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World Cup is showing what Trump can\u2019t destroy about America - American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American soft power looks different under the Trump administration. 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