Trump Uses The World Cup To Embarrass The United States

The United States is hosting the World Cup. Most nations use that opportunity to show off their country to the world. They treat every team (and their fans) with dignity, fairness, common decency, and a welcoming attitude. Unfortunately, those are not attributes that can be found in the Trump administration. Trump has decided to put restrictions on the team from Iran that no other team must endure.

Here is how Axios.com describes it:

The U.S.-Iran war is forcing FIFA to navigate a diplomatic and logistical mess before the World Cup even kicks off Thursday.

Why it matters: Iranians are largely banned from traveling to the U.S. right now, while Iran's national team will face an exhausting itinerary each time it plays on U.S. soil.

Zoom in: Iran has three guaranteed matches on U.S. soil in the group stage after FIFA declined the nation's request to move its games to stadiums in Canada or Mexico after the war started.

• Without overnight stays, the Iranian team will have to fly in from Mexico, clear customs, play a match and then fly back to Mexico the same day for each U.S.-based match.
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• "Everything has to go by schedule. There's a lot of preparations. The last thing you want to deal with is a TSA issue, and that's going to reflect very badly on the U.S. if anything like that happens," said Trita Parsi, co-founder of the Quincy Institute, a foreign policy think tank.
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• State of play: Iran's training camp was moved from Arizona to Mexico just weeks before the starting whistle.

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the request to move camps came through FIFA but originated with the U.S. government, which didn't want the Iranians staying overnight in the country. 
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• "While on the surface they may be complaining and pointing out that this is not the way the U.S. should be acting as a host, it doesn't mean that they're not happy that they don't have to be in the U.S.," said Trita Parsi, co-founder of the Quincy Institute, a foreign policy think tank.
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Zoom out: Iran is on the travel ban list. While Iranian players, coaches, staff and immediate family are supposed to be exempt, members of the support staff and the head of the country's football federation were denied visas, according the New York Times. 

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said in April that anyone affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization, will be denied a visa. 
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• There is required national military service in Iran, which could include the IRGC. The head of the federation, Mehdi Taj, was a former commander in the IRGC.
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Iran's fans won't be allowed to travel to the U.S. at all. Iranian nationals living in Iran or any other country won't be allowed to travel to the U.S. matches.

• The State Department declined to answer questions about the visa and consular processing.
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• An administration official said in a statement, "We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses."
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Between the lines: Likely demonstrations are another security risk to the tournament during Iran's matches. As in France's 1998 and Qatar's 2022 tournament, Iran's football team has been the target of anti-government protests during games.

• Los Angeles has a significant Iranian-American population, with a share who support the overthrown Shah, raising the risk of rule-breaking activity in the stands.