The Administration's Conduct During the World Cup: Inhospitable and UnAmerican—A Video Roundup
Our mid-June collection of clips
In our latest episode of Zooming In, published yesterday, senior editor Berny Belvedere sat down with the Washington Post’s León Krauze to discuss the one event rivaling LibCon2026 for everyone’s attention this summer: a little thing called the World Cup.
The premise behind this particular World Cup—the U.S., Mexico, and Canada won the right to host the 2026 Cup on a promise of American openness—has been betrayed by an administration bent on excluding, rather than welcoming, the visitors descending on the country to take part.
In this video roundup, we present to you a progression. First, video correspondent Landry Ayres on the case of Omar Artan, the Somali referee who dreamed of officiating a World Cup match only to find himself deemed too great a security risk to allow on our shores—a case Belvedere and Krauze touched on in the episode itself. We then present you a clip featuring The UnPopulist’s editor-in-chief, Shikha Dalmia, in conversation with the Cato Institute’s David J. Bier on the Trump administration’s anti-immigration extremism. And finally—zooming out within a Zooming In episode, ironically—The Bulwark’s William Kristol explains, alongside our own Andy Craig, why the inner logic of extremism demands ever more unhinged behavior, which is exactly what we’re seeing, and can expect moving forward, from the current president.
The 'Peace Prize' President Turns Away a Peaceful Somali World Cup Referee
Omar Artan, a 34-year-old Somali referee, was set to become the first person from his country to ever officiate a World Cup match. He landed in the United States with a valid visa and a diplomatic passport, full FIFA credentials in hand—but he never made it past the airport. He was detained for 11 hours, questioned, and turned away over nebulous “vetting concerns.” The World Cup was supposed to show America welcoming the world, but Artan got the MAGA-driven reception we’re actually giving.
The Mass Purging of Peaceful Immigrants
In this next clip, Dalmia and Bier follow the deportation numbers where the administration would rather they didn’t: toward a mass purge of immigrant communities living legally and peacefully in the country. The figures Bier cites come from the government’s own data—which is exactly why the Department of Homeland Security started attacking him by name. What that data shows about who’s actually being swept into ICE custody cuts against a deportation campaign that keeps insisting it’s strictly a matter of public safety. Artan was turned away on the pretense that he posed a danger—Bier’s numbers show how rarely danger is the real reason anyone is targeted at all.
Radicalization Is the Logic of Authoritarianism
But what’s underneath it all? What’s driving an administration unwilling to exhibit even minimal public decency during a world-stopping sports event the U.S. spent years lobbying to host? Kristol, in this clip from a prior conversation with Craig, offers the deeper logic. Authoritarian movements, he explains, don’t mellow with time—they actually radicalize. And a figure like Trump grows more unhinged, not less, as events unfold. Whether he is riding the rush of success or thrashing against the sense that he’s cornered, there is only one direction he will go.
Much of the World Cup will be a joyous event with soccer fans cheering for their favorite teams and favorite players. But as Belvedere and Krauze explored in their conversation yesterday, the event will be marred by this administration’s policies of exclusion and humiliation that are unbefitting of any host country, especially one called the United States of America!
© The UnPopulist, 2026
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