World Cup woes
As the quadrennial celebration of what the rest of the world knows as futbol draws near there’s a hand-wringing question in many host communities across the United States, one of the three North American nations hosting the World Cup.
Where is everybody?
While many of those communities are dealing with local issues like exorbitant costs to transport fans to distant venues and slow fundraising based on FIFA’s corporate sponsorship and advertising restrictions, there’s a common problem among all of them: hotel bookings are falling well below expectations — from 48 percent in Atlanta to 88 percent in Kansas City.
Part of the lag could be the high cost of tickets — admission to the final match in New Jersey could cost as much as $2 million. Remaining tickets for the opening match between Haiti and Scotland at Boston (née Gillette) Stadium run between $440 to $1,300 on reseller web sites.
FIFA, by the way, controls the resale market, taking 15 percent from both the buyer and the seller.
Even if there were enough high rollers from Haiti who wanted to attend that nation’s opening match, Trump has banned fans from that “s--thole” country” from traveling to the United States.
Then there’s the elephant on the pitch that journalists seem to be ignoring: What international visitor wants to come to Donald Trump’s America?
An analysis of data done with the assistance of Claude tracks the international response of tourists to the nation Trump has continued to tout as the “hottest” in the world.
Claude’s analysis found the United States is the only major country in the world where international tourism declined in 2025. Global arrivals grew roughly 10 percent last year; the US went in the other direction.
Citing data from the International Trade Administration, Claude found 68.3 million international visitors came to the US in 2025, down from 72.3 million in 2024 — the first decrease since 2020, when the pandemic shut down the world. Monthly data showed consistent year-over-year declines throughout the year.
The analysis found Trump administration’s policies drove much of this: tightened visa requirements, two travel bans targeting countries primarily in Africa and the Middle East, imposition of visa bonds, and reduced tourist visa validity.
Of 184 countries tracked by the World Travel and Tourism Council, the US was the only one to see an absolute decline in international visitor spending in 2025, with the WTTC projecting a $12.5 billion drop — about 7 percent.
Unsurprisingly, the largest drop in tourism came from one of the other host nations, Canada. Trump’s “51st State” rhetoric has severely soured relations with our northern neighbor.
Citing University of Toronto researchers tracking cellphone data, Claude found a year-over-year median decline of roughly 42 percent in Canadian visits to US metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada recorded a 25.4 percent drop in Canadians returning from US trips in 2025.
By February the decline was 14.5 percent below even that reduced 2025 level — and 31.5 percent below February 2024.
Things aren’t much better when it comes to visitors from across the pond. Claude cited aviation analytics firm Cirium which found European airline bookings for peak summer 2026 are down more than 14 percent. German and French visitors declined, though British visitors were up slightly.
A Skift analysis found 46 percent of global travelers said they were less likely to visit the US in 2025 due to Trump policies, with immigration enforcement coverage being the biggest deterrent.
So what awaits the intrepid traveler who still wants to journey to the United States? Donald Trump’s masked and armed immigration militia.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has decided now is a good time to raise the profile of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after the debacle in Minnesota where agents shot and killed two American citizens exercising their First Amendment right of protest.
The one-time head of a family plumbing business has kept a low profile since his predecessor Kristi Noem and the horse she rode in on were booted from office. No more. He is threatening to yank CPB agents from airports in “sanctuary cities” that limit cooperation with federal agents.
Cities like Newark, New Jersey, where the airport is a significant international port of entry. And where ICE is clashing with protesters upset about the conditions at a local detention center.
According to Mullin, reported to be under pressure by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen "Voldemort” Miller and border czar Tom “Cava Bag” Homan:
“[L] ocal radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws. We shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities either. They don’t want us to enforce immigration but they want us to process immigration at their facilities? Nothing about that makes sense to me.”
Even former MTV reality show star and Secretary of Transportation Sean “Road Trip” Duffy thinks Mullin’s idea should be flushed down the drain:
“We have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places,” he said during a hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee. “We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics.”
Former Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons previously said his agency would play a “key part” in security during the World Cup, similar to their role in other major sporting events.
In the end, the exorbitant costs are likely to keep many immigrants away from the matches. Whether that applies to employees selling overpriced hot dogs and beers remains to be seen.