No Play in the USA: Confronting Trump in the Sports World
People, not just in the United States, but the world over, are reeling and traumatized by the ferocity of President Donald Trumps’s shock and awe offensive in the first weeks of his second term. Millions of Americans are already feeling the pain the turning over of oversight for government spending to Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency.” A multitude of government agencies, and billions of dollars in funding for government programs have been frozen. Thousands of government workers have been offered early retirement or termination. I am a retired professor of political science and many of my colleagues and former students working for the government, or NGOs contracting with the government are depressed and distraught.
Laws suits have been filed by Blue (Progressive) state attorney generals, and by labor unions and other NGOs. But Trump is already behaving like a dictator and the cases take a long time to make their way through the courts. Citizens and some lawmakers are beginning to take to the streets. But the courts are already full of Trump appointees who have allowed him to get this far. And that includes a Supreme Court which ruled last year that presidents are immune from prosecution for illegal acts they commit as president that have to do with their core constitutional obligations.[1]
Trumps is seeking a dictatorship and as more people go to the streets we can expect that at some point he will “sic” his security forces, complimented by his brownshirts, to attack largely nonviolent protesters. He and his “junta” are banking that more chaos will make everyday citizens desire a strongman to bring order and security. The outcomes in such a scenario are uncertain, and it is likely that many people will be hurt whichever side wins out.
But Trump’s radical policies are not just hurting the United States. They’re threatening and already hurting people all over the world. Trump’s tariff threats on China, Canada and Mexico will make products more expensive here, but also in all three of those countries. His freezing of all programs of the US Agency for International Development have impounded billions of dollars of humanitarian aid to countries all over the Global South. [2] Those programs have been the “soft” face of US power serving the neediest all over the world. And anyone who knows anything about European history and who cares about democracy can’t be comfortable with the possibility of Trump abandoning Ukraine and opening the door to Russian expansion into the rest of the continent.
Trump doesn’t care about his own citizen’s, and he doesn’t care about peoples all over the world. So what can the world do to push back? Here’s an idea that I’m probably not the only one talking about. Let’s confront Trumpism in the world of international sporting. The Toronto Raptor basketball fans have already taken to booing during the US national anthem at their home games against US teams. How about this! What if nations refuse to allow American athletes to participate in international team sports competitions in their countries? And what if foreign countries refuse to participate in international sporting events in the US?
What if we start an international movement to isolate the US in sporting? Trump himself is vulnerable here. He’s still angry about the fact the NFL owners considered him unfit to own a franchise.[3] Think about this. The 2026 World Cup soccer tournament is scheduled for North America (US, Canada, Mexico). What if we start now to build a movement among all non-North American nations to refuse to play games in the US? They could say we’ll play in Mexico or in Canada, but not the US.
One might say this will punish the athletes and not the Trump’s government. But trillions of dollars are bound up in products and activities surrounding the World Cup, and most of that profit will be taken in the US, where most of the matches will be occurring. It would hurt US capital the most!
Secondly, athletes playing for their national sides are professional players somewhere. Many of them make a good living playing soccer already (especially those playing in Europe or the US). They do get paid to play in the World Cup, but the best players are playing more for prestige than money, even on Global Southern sides.
Most Europeans have a distaste if not outright contempt for Trump. Guys playing in Europe, where most of the best players on national teams make their living, can courageously stand up and take a “No Play in the USA” pledge, until Trump comes to his senses and learns to negotiate with the rest of the world over his concerns instead of bullying them/us! This would not make US and multinational capital happy.
We could mount a campaign inside the US to pressure our players, capitalists and citizens to support a “No Play in the USA” movement. I’m reminded of the courageous stand Tommy Smith and John Carlos took at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to protest racism in the US as the whole world watched.One also recalls the sports boycott of by athletes against South Africa over the course of decades which was instrumental in ending apartheid there.[4]
I am a US citizen. We will be fighting on the ground to stop Trump here. But Trump is a threat to the entire world. His heroes are Mussolini and Hitler. The Western great global powers allied to defeat European fascism in the last century. Today with the US more powerful than any country has ever been, we shall keep fighting on this side, but we need the help of the whole world to save us all from “Herr Trump” and all the other sleazy authoritarians taking their lead from him.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20240703080240/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/key-facts-from-the-supreme-courts-immunity-ruling-and-how-it-affects-presidential-power ;
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/07/federal-judge-blocks-trump-administration-putting-thousands-usaid-workers-leave/
[3] https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-winning-pigskin-war-with-the-nfl-2018-6
[4] https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-sports-teams-who-defied-the-apartheid-boycott-of-south-africa/
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