Trump gets DEVASTATING NEWS as WORLD CUP COLLAPSES!

The World Cup problem for Donald Trump continues to get worse as we edge ever closer to kick -off.Come on Scotland, side note.

They've never had anything that sold so quickly.It's amazing because it's the United States.I call it soccer, you know, it's just easier to do because we have football and they have two footballs, right?They call it football.But I never, most people never thought they'd see anything like that.The World Cup, it's turned out to be the most successful World Cup from the standpoint of what's happening.

than they've ever had.

There is a disconnect over tourism numbers for the FIFA World Cup 2026.Houston leaders keep saying it is a major economic opportunity for the area.

But the thing is that we're not seeing that come to fruition just yet.So when we when we asked hotels if they're seeing record bookings or reservations, they said no.KPRC two's Nicole Nielsen shows us what some in Houston's hospitality industry are actually seeing right now.

and back at the Lancaster You may remember we were ago as we checked in for 2026.Now, hotels say t rates were lower than ex hitting rodeo level numb I think they sold us as something really big and we just don't see those numbers yet.

An article by the Los Angeles Times is saying what has been obvious for weeks now, they're just the ones brave enough to come out and say it, the US World Cup hotel market is underperforming and the tournament is in jeopardy and Trump is a major reason why.Not just FIFA alone, not random travel patterns, not people whoforgot that the biggest sporting event on earth was happening, but Donald Trump is the issue, his immigration policies, his travel climate, his broader international reputation.The LA Times is now pointing directly at Trump as a major factor behind disappointing US hotel bookings.in the tournament as closer to a, quote, non -event than a boom.

FIFA hyped the World Cup as an economic juggernaut for the U .S., but with five weeks until the tournament kicks off, the hotel industry says advanced bookings in some host cities are on par or lagging any ordinary summer.Nearly 80 percent of U .S.hoteliers in 11 World Cup host cities say bookings are tracking below original forecast, with some describing the tournament as a, quote, non -event, according to an American Hotel and Lodging Association survey of members released Monday.

Only a quarter of AHLA respondents are, quote, seen meaningful incremental lift, mainly in markets with strong baseline leisure demand or team base camps.According to a report released last week by Oxford Economics, the U .S.Metro's hosting World Cup games are expected to see, quote, some GDP growth this summer, mainly concentrated in the leisure and hospitality sectors.However, this growth, quote, will not have a material impact on the country's overall jobs and economic gains for the year.

And the thing is, the reason Trump is being blamed directly is not exactly complicated, right?Especially the more his replacement for the icecosplay queen gets in front of the camera and warns about ice presence at the games.

No, I wouldn't say all of them.I'm saying when we have situations what's happening in New Jersey right now, when we have to prioritize where we put federal employees because local law enforcement won't help protect their streets, not federal streets, city streets, and keep them from barricading and causing harm to our employees, then we have to decide where we're going to prioritize our federal employees.So we're not going to halt the flights, but we're saying is we just won't be able to process them because we don't have officers there.We're going to have to pull out our Customs and Border Patrol officers that process these flights and put them in these facilities to help protect our employees coming out of work.By the way, and that's not their job.Their job is to do just what they said, custom and border protection.

However, since local law enforcement isn't able to do their job because they said, quote, they don't have the resources, well, we have to prioritize our resources as well.

International visitors are looking at the U .S.and they're seeing Aggressive immigration enforcement, visa uncertainty, travel warnings, ICE concerns near host cities, as well as threats to literally halt travel into two of the main host cities for the tournament.Let's see how that works out.All to appease a president whose brand is not exactly global welcome, right?

I think one thing we're going to quickly understand is we got people coming from all nationalities, religions, perspectives coming into this city.the city that we represent.Are we just going to get mad and say, oh my God, why are these people from there coming over here?They taking all the parking spots.They doing all this stuff.Are we going to embrace the diversity?

that sport brings us?Are we going to embrace the platform that we're going to get to cheer, celebrate, or cry?Have a kick with our buddy.Have a tough conversation with our sister about what's going on in this country right now or what's going on in the world right now.I think that's what is bigger than that.And I think this team is going to benefit from being able to deal with this situation that's been put on us about opinions, circumstances, conditions, and facts, even if they true, they're still opinions of other people.

We know what we represent up here in this building.We know what we get paid to do.But a lot of us are opening our eyes to the influence that we do have on the whole world.And that's a beautiful thing, when you can humble yourself and realize that, man, I got impact.I can really be the change that I desire to see.And that's what I'm encouraging these guys.

And this is not happening in isolation, right?We've been following a pattern across multiple stories.First, hotels were cutting rates and warning that demand was softer than expected.FIFA then released large blocks of hotel rooms, creating more pressure.Then civil rights groups issued travel advisory warnings to the US saying that visitors could face risks tied to immigration enforcement, surveillance, device searches, detention and racial profiling.Then you had vendors in Los Angeles, one of the main host cities, starting a protest about ICE presence around World Cup games.

The unite here local 11 Union is demanding formal guarantees that immigration and customs enforcementbe barred from all World Cup matches at the Sofi Stadium in June.The union, representing around 2 ,000 hospitality employees, insists that an active ice presence inside the arena would create a climate of fear for both staff and attendees.

I'm carrying my documentation since the first day.I always carry it with me. just in case something happens.And I believe that the stress that provokes to everybody is too much.It's too much.

" The union's demands follow an ongoing federal immigration crackdown by the Trump administration.Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned ICE for its contact during enforcement actions in several major U .S.cities last year, including Los Angeles.Workers on Monday also raised concerns regarding FIFA's accreditation process, which requires employees to submit personal data ahead of the tournament.

And then you have the international media taking notice, including the BBC, who reported on the US tourism boom that may not ever materialise for the World Cup.And then you tie this recent LA Times article into the matter, where it is placing blame where it belongs.Trump is a major reason people are hesitant.And now, FIFA's ticket mess seems to just be adding to this concoction but doesn't exactly give off optimism ahead of the tournament.You may have seen reports that New York and New Jersey are investigating FIFA's World Cup ticket practices after complaints about sky high prices, dynamic pricing, resale issues and fans seeing that they got worse deals than expected.Now, New York's legal pressure matters because it shows that the accessibility crisis has become serious enough for government intervention which has actually happened already in Canada.

Shock they paved the way.

soccer games in the world are coming to your hometown and you can't watch that is unless you can shell out some serious cash.Official World Cup match tickets are going for upwards of $11 ,000 with resale reaching as high as $2 million.These outrageous prices led New York and New Jersey to launch investigations into FIFA just weeks before the games are set to begin.Attorneys General Letitia James of New York and Jennifer Davenport of New Jersey released a statement today announcing they have subpoenaed FIFA, seeking information about its ticketing practices for the eight World Cup matches set to take place in New Jersey.CNN's Brynn Gingras joins me now.Brynn, what do they expect to find?

Yeah, look, they're looking at how many tickets were allocated for these different games.Not only Jake in New York, New Jersey Stadium MetLife, as we know it here, of course, but also if a New York, New Jersey consumer bought tickets at a different stadium for the World Cup, they want to know more about that as well.So they have a very wide scope of this investigation that they're looking into.And look, Jake, I talked to a fan who is based in Washington state and actually said he hopes his attorney general takes some similar action.But he basically told me this story about how he went online waited in a queue for 12 hours to get World Cup tickets in Seattle, finally got to a point where he could pick his two seats, he said they were pretty good seats on the side of the pitch, not behind a goal post, waited another five minutes to check out, finally paid $515 each for those tickets, and then when he got the confirmation, his seats were in a completely different area of the stadium.

FIFA wanted to run this tournament like a premium global marketplace, with dynamic pricing, luxury hospitality, resale fees, But New York, they're following suit with what happened in Toronto and they're saying you don't get to exploit fans without scrutiny.And this is exactly what Donald Trump as the president has failed to do at the national level.Trump has not made the tournament more accessible.He's not made travel feel more accessible.He's not brought down costs or even discussed the matter.He's not calmed immigration fears or made the US feel any more welcoming.

He's treated the World Cup as what he usually treats events like this as a photo op, which is in stark contrast to the man that everyone claimed would bankrupt New York City and turn it into Cuba, Zoran Mamdani.Because while the president is presiding over a world cup defined by high prices, weak hotel demand and travel anxiety, Mamdani is actually doing something.Practical he is making it accessible for the people who he represents and people who make the game What it is the fans it was announced in New York City that Mamdani had secured a thousand affordable World Cup tickets for New Yorkers at $50 per seat and those tickets include free round -trip bus transportation to MetLife Stadium as well as offering free watch events across the city to combat the fact that FIFA are Charging fans to enter fan zones in the United States one of the first host nation states to do that.I mean, this is what leadership looks like on the ground level, right?

We are going to continue to do everything we can to increase jobs in this city, and we look at every single thing that happens in this city as having an opportunity to that end.We are less than 70 days away from the big change.the World Cup.Now, I will tell you, as a soccer obsessive, that I have, you know, many, many have dreamt for many years about this moment, purely thinking about what happens on the field.But now, as the mayor of this city, I'm thinking about the immense economic opportunity that billions of dollars that this could yield and the responsibility we have in our city administration to ensure that that is an economic opportunity that extends far beyond just the typical areas where a tourist might go and into the beauty and the breadth of these five boroughs.And when we're talking about corporate America in our city, we're seeing commitments, whether it be from Bank of America or American Express or so many other large scale companies to not just the present of this city, but also the future of this city.

And that's work that we will continue to do.

He's not out here posing for a VIP box or just releasing slogans or a photo with Anfantino.He is offering protections against the tournament becoming only something that the wealthy can go to.And this is coming from the so -called radical socialist.He is the one making the World Cup more accessible in one of the biggest cities in America, not Trump.And this is why the L .A.

Times story is damaging for Trump because it shows that he is not just failing politically, he is failing as a host.The World Cup is supposed to project stability, confidence, openness and competence but under Donald Trump, the image that is appearing is that of fear, high costs, legal fights, ice concerns and hotel anxiety, with fans reconsidering whether America is even worth the hassle.