Attending the 2026 World Cup? Right to jail
This is the true face of America. All Vance is doing is saying the quiet part out loud.
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Show of hands: how many of you watched the Obama-era sitcom Parks and Recreations?
The show is basically a work of political satire styled as a mockumetnary that followed mid-level bureaucrat and her incompetent yet irreverent cast of colleagues in the Parks Department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. It ran from 2009-2015 and was easily among my favourite shows at the time.
But that’s not what I’m here to write about. Well, not exactly. I actually want to write about the incoming shitshow known as the 2026 World Cup.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump chaired the first meeting of the 2026 World Cup taskforce, which also featured FIFA President Gianni Infantino. During the meeting, Trump appointed Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as executive director of the task force. He also boasted that the 2026 World Cup will be the “biggest, safest and most extraordinary soccer tournament in history,”—a statement that, as usual, couldn’t be further from the truth.
There are a wide range of reasons to be concerned about the upcoming spectacle, from the ongoing trade war that Trump launched on co-hosts Canada and Mexico, to detaining foreign nationals, deporting migrants and green card holders, and processing time for visas ahead of the event.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, the country’s air travel system is not built to handle the incoming surge of travellers expected ahead of the World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The association released a report in February 2025 calling for security reforms, the modernization of air traffic control technology, and improvements to visa processing.
Meanwhile, the government cuts being undertaken by billionaire Elon Musk in his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), only add to the pressure facing the overwhelmed travel system. This will worsen wait time and ensure that many of the fans who purchased tickets for the World Cup will not be able to attend the event.
None of these issues stopped Infantino from proclaiming that “America will welcome the world,” and that “everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun to celebrate the game, will be able to do that.”
The White House later shared a glossy bit of propaganda featuring some of the claims Trump’s cabinets were regurgitating during the meeting.
And then there was JD Vance.
The vice president and vice chair of the task force took it upon himself to—uh—joke about deporting tourists who visit the US for the tournament.
"We want them to come. We want them to celebrate. We want them to watch the game. But, when the time is up, they have to go home. Otherwise they’ll have to talk to [DHS] Secretary Noem," Vance said, referring to Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary who was sitting next to him.
For reference, this is Noem.
While some have interpreted Vance’s comments as a joke, the truth is that it was a thinly-veiled threat and a reiteration of the policies that the Trump administration is already undertaking. They are rounding up migrants as we speak, from green card holders like Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil to the wrongfully deported 29-year-old Salvadoran citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia. On Friday, viral footage showed Massachusetts residents descending on ICE agents who had detained a woman with her family. The clip shows the woman clinging to her infant child as ICE agents attempt to arrest her.
Now, back to Parks and Rec.
Vance’s comment remind me of one of the episodes from the second season—the first season worth watching, really—where the Pawnee parks department meet with the parks department from their sister city in Venezuela. At the time, Venezuela was ruled by Hugo Chavez, a populist leader who ran on a “socialist revolution” platform and reigned with an iron fist. His representatives in the episode are satirical depictions of a military junta: wealthy, ruthless, and vindictive.
As one of the officers watches a Pawnee town hall descend to its usual chaos, he laments to the camera about all the ways he would jail citizens who dared to step out of line.
You shout like that they put you in jail. Right away. No trial, no nothing. Journalists, we have a special jail for journalists. You are stealing: right to jail. You are playing music too loud: right to jail, right away. Driving too fast: jail. Slow: jail. You are charging too high prices for sweaters, glasses: you right to jail. You undercook fish? Believe it or not, jail. You overcook chicken, also jail. Undercook, overcook. You make an appointment with the dentist and you don't show up, believe it or not, jail, right away. We have the best patients in the world because of jail.
The joke is hilarious and speaks for itself, so I’m more interested in the irony of it all. While the episode, written during the height of Obamamania, was poking fun at Venezuela’s authoritarian regime, it now shares commonalities with the creeping authoritarianism seen in the US—a country that deports innocent migrants to notorious prisons in El Salvador; a country that abducts dissidents, intimidates journalists, and crushes minorities; a country that celebrates strength by targeting the world’s poorest and most downtrodden people.
This is the true face of America. All Vance is doing is saying the quiet part out loud.
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