Bread, Circuses, and Regime Change
From the pitch to the cage, major sports institutions have helped recast Donald Trump as a “peace president”—even as the bombs keep falling.
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When FIFA president Gianni Infantino handed U.S. President Donald Trump the organization’s inaugural — and conspicuously improvised — “FIFA Peace Prize” during the official World Cup draw in December 2025, he justified the honour as recognition of Trump’s “unwavering commitment to advancing peace and unity throughout the world.”
It was an absurd scene: a global sports body anointing a sitting president as a harbinger of peace, beneath the bright lights of a tournament built on spectacle. FIFA offered no details about the selection process or its exact criteria. Instead, Infantino made vague statements about hope, unity, and the future.
“You definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you have obtained it in an incredible way,” infantino said. “You can always count, Mr President, on my support, on the support of the entire football community – or “soccer” community – to help you make peace and make the world prosper all over the world.”
In the two months since Infantino’s declaration, the US has launched airstrikes on Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro. Trump also threatened to invade Greenland, saying the US is “going to do something [there] whether they like it or not”. Then, on Saturday Feb. 28, the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, hitting more than 500 targets in the “largest military air raid in the history of the Israeli Air Force.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among Israel’s targets. The radical cleric was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on his Tehran compound, along with several members of his family. The Iranian Red Crescent also reported that at least 201 people were killed and 747 wounded in Saturday’s strikes. This includes Israeli strikes on two elementary girls’ schools, killing more than 80 people. Iran has since retaliated with airstrikes of its own targeting Israeli cities and several neighbouring countries where US forces are stationed, including Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
In the wake of the strikes, FIFA said it will “monitor developments” in Iran, which is among the 48 teams that have qualified for the 2026 World Cup. Iran is assigned to play in Group C along with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand. Seattle will host Iran vs. Egypt while Iran’s other two group stage games will be played in Los Angeles.
“We will continue to communicate as we always do with three [host] governments as we always do in any case,” said FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom. Everybody will be safe.”
Despite the fact that Trump has now launched military operations in three continents since the start of his second term in office, the US President has long claimed to be the anti-war president. He campaigned on his “record of no new wars” and promised to end America’s interventionist foreign policy. On Trump’s re-election night in November 2024, he had told supporters he was “not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.”
Over the past few months, Trump has been obsessed with winning the Nobel Peace Prize, lobbying aggressively for the prize after claiming to have stopped multiple conflicts. When Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado was awarded the prize in 2025, Trump expressed displeasure at the decision. When the US captured Maduro and charged him in a drug trafficking case, Machado gifted her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump.
Aware that Trump had been snubbed of his peace prize legacy, FIFA rushed to create its own prize to appease the president. And when the organization faced criticism for its decision, FIFA defended its actions by pointing to Machado’s choice to bestow Trump with her medal.
Nevertheless, FIFA isn’t the only sports organization that helped sell the image of Trump as the “peace president.” The UFC has spent the better part of the last decade laundering Trump as the quintessential fighter. UFC President Dana White maintains a close friendship with the president and has stumped for him across three presidential campaigns. During his speeches at the Republican National Convention, White reinforced the narrative of Trump as a “fighter,” saying he is the “toughest, most resilient human being I’ve ever met.”
The UFC helped put Trump back in the White House and remains a platform for his loyal base of supporters. Trump frequently attended UFC events, basking in the admiration of the young, predominantly male crowd. He cultivated relationships with fighters, leveraging their support to portray himself as a symbolic strongman. And he is even leveraging the UFC to stage the biggest example of sports propaganda in American history: a UFC event at the White House.
Initially conceived to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States in July 2026, the event was reportedly rescheduled to June for logistical reasons. According to Trump, it is now expected to take place on June 14, coinciding with his birthday and fuelling perceptions that the celebration is as much about him personally as it is about American nationalism.
In an article for The Guardian last year, I called the event “authoritarian theatre,” with “shades of fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini, particularly its obsession with masculinity, spectacle and nationalism – but with a modern, American twist.”
From the article: “Since Trump returned to office in January, his presidency has been marked by a purge of federal agencies, crackdowns on dissent and immigration, and hollowing out institutions once designed as guardrails against abuses in presidential power. Loyalty to Trump, rather than the constitution and the American people, has become the primary litmus test for political advancement. Meanwhile, sports have emerged as a central feature of his administration, advancing his policies while projecting a cult of personality and the celebration of violence. All of these are the hallmarks of authoritarianism.”
Trump’s warmongering efforts mark the latest escalation in his creeping authoritarianism. According to Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the power “to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” This is prevent a president from having the unchecked power to launch wars that do not serve their nation. Nevertheless, Trump launched a regime change campaign in Iran without Congressional approval, and in blatant violation of international law (for whatever that is worth, these days).
Even George W. Bush and his cabinet of war criminals, who justified the 2003 invasion of Iraq by lying about Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction, sought congressional authorization before the invasion. Trump, however, doesn’t even care to present the illusion of democratic process.
Speaking of Iraq, history has made one lesson painfully clear: foreign intervention breeds instability far more often than it delivers freedom. Bombs do not bring salvation; they leave behind devastation, scorching the very soil where democracy might have taken root. Yet Trump and his allies in FIFA and the UFC would have you believe that peace is forged through displays of strength.
“America needs a strong leader, and I think the world needs a strong America…I just want to bring common sense back. Want some peace in the world,” White told TIME Magazine ahead of Trump’s reelection. “And I truly believe, friendship aside, that Donald Trump can fix a lot of the issues that are out there right now.”
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