Boston mayor dismisses Trump threat of removing World Cup games

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Boston mayor Michelle Wu implied the city is ready for a faceoff with President Donald Trump over his claim he could order FIFA to remove World Cup games scheduled to be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough next summer.

Wu appeared on “Java with Jimmy” on Wednesday to respond to Tuesday’s criticism from the White House, which labeled the Democrat as “radical left” and said he would make a call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino if Boston doesn’t “clean up its act.”

“Much of it is locked down by contract so that no single person, even if they live in the White House currently, can undo it,” Wu said. “We’re in a world where for drama, for control, for pushing the boundaries … ongoing threats … are issued to individuals and communities who refuse to back down and comply or be obedient to a hateful agenda.”

“We are going to continue to be who we are and that means, unfortunately, we are going to be in a conversation in a way that is targeting Boston’s values. Ten toes down for Boston.”

Infantino was a guest of Trump at a press conference announcing the accord between Israel and Gaza earlier this week.

On Tuesday, Trump was asked about violence in South Boston that included a police vehicle being set ablaze and said, “If somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni — the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal — and I would say, ‘Let’s move into another location’ and they would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it. But he would do it very easily.”

The United States, Mexico and Canada are joint North American hosts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Trump made previous comments suggesting he would take up the same conversation with Infantino about moving games from Seattle and San Francisco, which are among the 16 total host cities for the event scheduled to be played from June 11 to July 19 next summer.

–Field Level Media