President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced Andrew Giuliani, the son of his top ally Rudy Giuliani, will serve as executive director of his task force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
During a meeting with the group hosted at the White House, Trump praised Giuliani, claiming he is very much qualified for his new role.
“He’s going to be great. I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a highly competitive golfer, which I mean, really good, and he’s also a highly competitive person and he loves what we’re doing,” Trump said.
The president also made sure to reference the elder Giuliani, his ex-personal lawyer and former New York City mayor, who faced legal trouble over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election for Trump.
“I want to congratulate you and your family and your father, your great father, who’s the greatest mayor in the history of New York,” Trump said.
“It’s a big post. You better do well, Andrew,” he added.
Trump also named FIFA adviser and former president of the United States Soccer Federation Carlos Cordeiro as a senior adviser to the task force.
Giuliani previously served as a special assistant to Trump and associate director of the Office of Public Liaison during Trump’s first term in office. He also ran for New York governor in 2022 but finished second behind then-Rep. Lee Zeldin in the GOP primary.
In a post on his account on X, formerly Twitter, Giuliani said he was “honored” to get this new assignment, adding that he looks forward to working on “the safest and most successful World Cup in history.”
The U.S. will jointly host the event with Mexico and Canada.
The tournament is expected to draw over 5 million fans from all over the world in total, according to FIFA.
Yet, Vice President JD Vance joked about potentially deporting the tourists traveling to the U.S. for the occasion.
“We’ll have visitors from close to 100 countries. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the game,” Vance said. “But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home, otherwise they’ll have to talk to [Homeland Security] Secretary Noem.”
Meanwhile, Trump appeared to be unaware of Russia’s disqualification from the event as a result of global sporting sanctions imposed on Moscow following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“I didn’t know that. Is that right?” Trump asked.