TRANSCRIPT: Emily Austin of DAZN Interviews President Trump at a FIFA Match, 7.13.25
[VIDEO]
Emily Austin: Mr. President, you've made history on just about every stage in the world, but now we're watching history unfold here in the United States --
President Trump: Yeah.
Austin: -- as the World Club Cup takes place here. What does it say for America on a global stage, not just for politics, but now sports too?
Trump: Well, it's a big thing. And you know, Johnny's a friend of mine. He's on such a great job with the league and with soccer, or they would call it football, but I guess we call it soccer. I'm not sure that change could be made very easily.
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: But it's great to watch. And this is a little bit of an upset that we're watching today, isn't it? Huh?
Austin: I know. No, I know. Surprising.
Trump: So far --
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: -- it's incredible.
Austin: What if we make an executive order? We could only say football from now on?
Trump: Uh, I think we could do that. I think I could do that.
Austin: Yeah. Well, speaking of Gianni mean, FIFA has been so wonderful in this process, and I know that you've had your, their trophy on your desk.
Trump: Right.
Austin: Now it's at the Trump Tower.
Trump: Right.
Austin: What do you think they're doing for the sport in America?
Trump: Oh, they're doing fantastically well. It's a growing sport. It's a great sport. That's right. They said, "Could you hold this trophy for a little while?" We put it in the Oval Office. And then I said, "When are you gonna pick up the trophy?" He says, "We're never gonna pick it up."
Austin: [Laughs]
Trump: You can have it forever in the Oval Office. We're making a new one. And they actually made a new one. So that was quite exciting. But it is, it's in the O- Right now, it's in the Oval.
Austin: Oh, okay. Maybe I'll come see it.
Trump: Good.
Austin: Um, you talk about winning. You talk about making America the greatest again. Do you see any instance in where America could start dominating in football on a global stage?
Trump: Well, I can tell you we're doing very well on the other stage, on the political stage, on the financial stage. We have, I was just in Saudi Arabia. I was in Qatar. I was in UAE.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Trump: We have Qatar and, you know, the big, uh, the big presidents they have, but all of the leaders, and then you, uh, look at NATO, all of the leaders said, "A year ago, your country was dead. And now you have the hottest country in the world." There's a lot of truth to that. I --
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: We were doing very badly as a country. We had a incompetent administration, and now we have a hot country. It's really hot. And I think the soccer's gonna be very hot here too. It already is. It's gotten, you know, a lot of play. And --
Austin: Yeah,
Trump: I think with the, uh, with the play come, the great players and it'll, I think it'll do very well.
Austin: Yeah. I'll give you some great numbers we got this week. So in this arena alone, we sold out four times in the last week.
Trump: Wow.
Austin: Over 2.4 million people filled up this arena. Almost three billion viewers, one billion in prize money. I know we like to talk about billions here, but it's been quite a success.
Trump: I could see it. And, uh, we flew over the stadium. It was packed. And that's the four, uh, the four matches I know for this group that came in for this. And I think that's fantastic. It was very impressive. Even flying over, you could see the lines of people trying to get in.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Trump: It's great.
Austin: It's been phenomenal. Um, DAZN, we recognize that unity through sport is a very, very powerful tool.
Trump: Right.
Austin: So we've been streaming this entire tournament for free.
Trump: Oh.
Austin: There are, like I said, almost three billion viewers all over the world watching this. What would your message be to all of the viewers from every corner of the globe?
Trump: Well, it is, it's about unity. It's about everybody getting together and, uh, a lot of love between countries. And this is such an interna- guess this is probably the most international sport.
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: So it can really bring the world together.
Austin: Yeah. Before I let you go, I wanna ask you, who is your goat, your greatest of all time.
Trump: In this sport you're talking about?
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: Not in another sport. In this sport. Well, I tell you what --
Austin: If you want to give us all your goats, go ahead.
Trump: Many years ago when I was young, they brought a player named Pele to play, and he played for a team called The Cosmos. And Steve Ross, a friend of mine, Warner
Communications, he was the inspiration we had. And this place was packed. It was a, an earlier version of this stadium --
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: -- but right here in the Meadowlands, and, uh, and it was Pele -- I don't wanna date myself, but that was a long time ago. I was a young guy and I came to watch Pele and he was fantastic. And I would, so I'd say probably I'll go old-fashioned. That's like saying Babe Ruth, but --
Austin: Yeah.
Trump: -- uh, I would say Pele was so great.