Some positions are held until they become inconvenient, and some positions are held until your team’s leading scorer needs to play Belgium. Donald Trump spent 15 months trying to end birthright citizenship by executive order, watched the Supreme Court reject that effort 6-3 last Tuesday, and then personally called FIFA, according to HuffPost, to get Folarin Balogun’s one-match red card suspension lifted so Balogun could play today’s World Cup round of 16 in Seattle at Lumen Field. Balogun is American through birthright citizenship, which is the right Trump spent 15 months trying to end, which the Supreme Court protected last week, which Trump is now grateful exists because Balogun has four World Cup goals.
Balogun was born in Brooklyn, New York in 2001 because an airline denied his British-citizen mother boarding for a return flight to London on the grounds that she was too close to giving birth to fly, and she gave birth on American soil, and Balogun became a U.S. citizen at that moment under the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to everyone born in the United States, which is the constitutional provision Trump’s executive order attempted to end, which the Supreme Court ruled he could not end, which is now the reason there is a Balogun to call FIFA about.
“Fun fact: Birthright citizenship suddenly seems pretty valuable to Donald Trump when the birthright citizen is scoring goals for Team USA,” wrote sports journalist Jamie Bonkiewicz, in a post that circulated widely. “Big win for birthright citizenship,” wrote ESPN’s Pablo Torre, for whom this was apparently the most efficient way to cover both sports and constitutional law simultaneously. Wayne Rooney told GB News that FIFA “should be ashamed” of the reversal. Belgium released a furious statement. FIFA, which gave Trump the FIFA Peace Prize in February for his role in hosting the tournament, then used the mechanism of that relationship to overrule its own disciplinary process to keep a birthright citizen on the field for the country whose president spent 15 months arguing birthright citizens shouldn’t exist.
Trump has not addressed the irony. His administration has not addressed the irony. Stephen Miller, whose Truth Social post last week listed “get rid of ICE” as a Democratic horror, has also not addressed the irony, though the irony is now playing left wing in Seattle.
When the president who fought birthright citizenship calls FIFA to save a birthright citizen’s World Cup, which position is the real one?
Sources
HuffPost: Trump’s FIFA Intervention Comes With 1 Very Awkward Twist
GB News: Belgium release furious statement after FIFA suspended Balogun’s ban
