In 2025, Trump told FIFA, Olympics and NCAA to get in line. For the most part, they complied

It has never been unusual for the leader of the host country to show up for one of the biggest moments of soccer's World Cup — the gala where the team pairings are revealed.

What made President Donald Trump’s appearance this month different was the “FIFA Peace Prize.” The newly created honor by the sport's international federation was, to no one's surprise, presented to Trump, who'd been angling for a far more prestigious award — the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump hovering over soccer’s international spectacle was a fitting moment in a cycle that shifted into overdrive in 2025: The U.S. president, with the help of some U.S. politicians and many sports leaders, took unprecedented steps to bend sports to his own worldview.

“I think sports is one fundamental example of Trump’s belief that he’s in charge of everything,” said David Niven, who teaches a “Sports and Politics” course at the University of Cincinnati.

Though the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, transgender issues and more have repercussions in many areas, all veered into the games people play, and watch, in 2025.

Next year's World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics — sports events that tout their ability to bring the world together — will be scrutinized for whether they accomplish that goal in a country that has become less welcoming.

In one example, an executive order Trump signed soon after taking office seeks to reduce opportunities for transgender athletes.

In another, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ramped up activity, leading to more than 605,000 deportations since Trump's first day in office, according to the administration.

“Fans, whenever you have a major soccer event, they’ll show up and support their team,” said Louis Moore, a Michigan State professor who teaches about sports in society. He said he suspects ICE will be at some of the venues “and I just hope that FIFA has the backbone to have something worked out where you could protect players and fans.”

Whether ICE shows up at World Cup games is an open question. But the White House has been sending mixed messages that could have an impact on athletes and fans coming to America for these international sports events.

On one hand, the administration has touted the creation of a “FIFA Pass,” designed to allow ticketholders to get expedited appointments for their visas. On the other, it recently announced expansion of travel bans and immigration restrictions — some targeting countries taking part in the World Cup — in reaction to the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington last month.

The debate over transgender athletes was a touchstone cultural issue that helped Trump win last year’s election.

Early in his term, Trump signed an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” empowering federal agencies to ensure schools receiving federal funding comply with the administration’s reading of Title IX, which interprets “sex” as the gender a person was assigned at birth.

The day after Trump signed his order, the NCAA amended its own rules to adhere to the administration’s guidance.

“President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” said NCAA President Charlie Baker, a former Massachusetts governor.

Several months later, and with no fanfare, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) changed its policy to conform with Trump’s. It was a move Olympic legal expert Jill Pilgrim said was backed by a “well-reasoned set of arguments."

"But I’d be pretty shocked if this doesn’t get challenged” in court, Pilgrim said.

All the while, key leaders took pains to stay on Trump's good side.

Though some believe it violated FIFA's own requirements to be politically neutral, the FIFA Peace Prize afforded an excuse for its president, Gianni Infantino, to lavish praise on Trump, who has the ability to make life easy or incredibly awkward for the sport when it comes to the United States next year.

While soccer gave a trophy to Trump, U.S. Olympic leaders used a White House ceremony this summer to present him with a set of medals from the 1984 Olympics — the last time they were held in Los Angeles.

It was part of an event attended by LA28 and USOPC leaders Casey Wasserman and Gene Sykes during which Trump signed an executive order creating an Olympic “task force."

Though the task force is charged with overseeing functions the government would normally provide for the Olympics anyway — like security and visa processing — this gave Trump a chance to take credit for it while bringing Wasserman and Sykes to the White House to thank him.

It made for some awkwardness when Trump asked a silent room for applause after thanking Sykes for the USOPC’s move on the transgender policy.

“Some of this is almost to the point of parody,” said Niven, the Cincinnati professor. “They’re just shiny things that are in front of him at a given moment.”

Also over the summer, Trump was a specially invited guest of the PGA of America at one of its biggest events, the Ryder Cup — a Europe vs. USA golf tournament held outside New York.

The invitation came some three years after the PGA removed the 2022 PGA Championship from one of Trump's golf courses, saying hosting there would be “detrimental to the brand" in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on Congress.

In addition to his rift with the PGA, Trump supported LIV Golf — the Saudi-backed league that caused a rupture in the sport after dangling nine-figure salaries to lure many of its top players. Early in 2025, Trump held a White House meeting to try to make peace.

Though nothing came of that meeting, both that and his appearance at the Ryder Cup marked his symbolic return into the fold of the sport he cares about most.

If there was lingering resentment among the players during the Ryder Cup's emotionally charged week, it was not perceptible — they took pains to call it an honor to have Trump there, while treading nowhere near politics.

College sports is one area testing the limits of Trump’s influence, though that hasn't kept him from trying.

The “Saving College Sports” executive order Trump signed in July was a sweeping document that, among other things, ordered labor officials to clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of their schools.

For the NCAA, the answer is a hard no. It also seeks antitrust protections to prevent it from being sued.

Ultimately, Congress has the authority to decide both issues. But Republicans and Democrats envision far different remedies for an industry in flux. Neither side passed significant legislation on the issue.

“It’s one of the thorniest issues out there, and it just defies simple solution,” Niven said of the college conundrum. “That’s not exactly the description of Congress’ sweet spot for contributing.”

All of which could leave an opening for Trump — who hasn't weighed in much since the executive order — to try again in 2026.

“Something ought to be done, and I’m willing to put the federal government behind it,” he said last week. “But if it’s not done, you’re going to wipe out colleges. They’re going to get wiped out, including ones who do well in football.”

https://apnews.com/sports

FILE - President Donald Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump listens as Casey Wasserman, chairman of LA28, presents him a full set of medals from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, during an event regarding the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump signs an executive order at the White House in Washington, Feb. 5, 2025, barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump, left, and his granddaughter Kai Trump attend the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, awards President Donald Trump with the FIFA Peace Prize during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Farmers in tractors blocked roads, threw potatoes and eggs, and set off fireworks in Brussels on Wednesday outside a European Union leaders’ summit, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannons as protesters rallied against a major free-trade deal with South American nations.

Farmers fear that the deal will undercut their livelihoods, and there are broader political concerns that it could also help drive support for the far right.

Thousands of farmers are also expected at twin rallies planned by farmers' unions that are set to converge on Place Luxembourg, a stone's throw from the European Parliament and the Europa Building where leaders of the 27 EU nations are meeting. They are to discuss amending the trade pact or delaying its signing.

Also on the agenda of the EU summit is a proposal to seize Russian assets for use in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Italy signaled it had reservations too, joining the French-led opposition to signing the massive transatlantic free-trade deal between the EU and the five active Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. The deal would progressively remove duties on almost all goods traded between the two blocs over the next 15 years.

French President Emmanuel Macron dug in against the Mercosur deal as he arrived for Thursday’s EU summit, pushing for further concessions and further discussions in January. He said he has been in discussions with Italian, Polish, Belgian, Austrian and Irish colleagues among others about delaying it.

“We are not ready. It doesn’t add up,” he said. “This accord cannot be signed.”

“Farmers already face an enormous amount of challenges,″ he said, as farmer protests roil regions around France. ″We cannot sacrifice them on this accord.”

Worried by a surging far right that rallies support by criticizing the deal, Macron's government has demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.

Premier Giorgia Meloni told the Italian Parliament on Wednesday that signing the agreement in the coming days “would be premature."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is determined to sign the agreement, but she needs the backing of at least two-thirds of EU nations.

Italy’s opposition would give France enough votes to veto von der Leyen’s signature.

“This doesn’t mean that Italy intends to block or oppose (the deal), but that it intends to approve the agreement only when it includes adequate reciprocal guarantees for our agricultural sector,” Meloni said.

The accord has been under negotiation for 25 years. Once ratified, it would cover a market of 780 million people and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product. Supporters say it would offer a clear alternative to Beijing's export-controls and Washington's tariff blitzkrieg, while detractors say it will undermine both environmental regulations and the EU's iconic agricultural sector.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the Brussels summit that the EU's global status would be dented by a delay or scrapping of the deal.

“If the European Union wants to remain credible in global trade policy, then decisions must be made now," he said.

The deal is also about strategic competition between Western nations and China over Latin America, said Agathe Demarais, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “A failure to sign the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement risks pushing Latin American economies closer to Beijing’s orbit,” she said.

Despite the likelihood of a delay, von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa are still scheduled to sign the deal in Brazil on Saturday.

“We have to get rid of our over-dependencies, and this is only possible through a network of free-trade agreements,” said von der Leyen. “It is of enormous importance that we get the green light for Mercosur.”

The political tensions that have marked Mercosur in recent years — especially between Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and Brazil’s center-left Lula da Silva, the bloc’s two main partners — have not altered the willingness of South American leaders to seal an alliance with Europe that will result in benefits for their agricultural production.

“We remain optimistic that next Saturday we will have approval from the European Union and, therefore, that we can proceed with the signing of the treaty,” said Uruguay’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Gabriel Oddone.

Lula has been one of the most fervent promoters of the agreement from South America’s largest economy. As host of the upcoming summit, the Brazilian president is betting on closing the deal on Saturday and scoring a major diplomatic achievement ahead of next year’s general elections, in which he will seek reelection.

At a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lula was clearly irked by Italy and France's positions. He said that Saturday would be a make-or-break moment for the deal.

“If we don't do it now, Brazil won't make any more agreements while I'm president,” Lula said, adding that the agreement would “defend multilateralism” as Trump pursues unilateralism.

Milei, a close ideological ally of Trump, also supports the deal.

“We must stop thinking of Mercosur as a shield that protects us from the world and start thinking of it as a spear that allows us to effectively penetrate global markets,” he said some time ago.

Associated Press writers Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, and Mark Carlson and Angela Charlton in Brussels contributed to this report.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with the media as he arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

A fire burns in a barrel as European farmers block a road with their tractors during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

Police stand behind a barrier as European farmers block a road with their tractors during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks with the media as she arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

A farmer drives a tractor with a sign that reads in Dutch 'Don't forget, without farmers there's no food' during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

Farmers drive their tractors to block a main boulevard during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)

A farmer puts wood in a fire during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Protestors and farmers stand next to a wood fire during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Farmers use their tractors to block a main road during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)