Waffle House is winning the World Cup

On the eve of its 250th birthday, the United States isn’t exactly at peak popularity, globally speaking. One poll this past spring found that despite its past most-admired status, the U.S. is now viewed less favorably than China in much of the world. Cohosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup amid inflation and various travel restrictions isn’t helping. But road-tripping World Cup tourists have been offering a counterpoint on social media, posting a wave of admiring, and occasionally gobsmacked, content about everyday American brands and chains like Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, Walmart, and Chick-fil-A. Posts often express amazement at the scale and convenience and free soda refills. Not surprisingly, the posts and their pro-American-brand messages have been widely amplified by a bemused U.S. press. “It’s like a theme park and a museum all wrapped into, you know, a big retail store,” a Scottish visitor to a Bass Pro Shops location told The New York Times. A German soccer fan, @FreddyLA7, started a six-week Cup-centric journey across the U.S. and Canada a few days before the tournament began, and has ended up attracting hundreds of thousands of X followers with his enthusiastic posts about routine American culture. “The Holy land,” he pronounced a Taco Bell. “Great food, great prices, and friendly staff,” he reported after trying his first Waffle House, in Georgia, at the appropriate time of 1 a.m. “10/10, we will be coming back.” (True to his word, at a later stop in New Orleans, one of America’s great and distinct food cities, he opted for Waffle House again.) Just had our first Waffle House experience at 1am. Great food, great prices, and friendly staff. 10/10, we will be coming back.😋 pic.twitter.com/QHgftpqfoX— Freddy🇩🇪 (@FreddyLA7) June 8, 2026 View this post on Instagram He’s not the only international visitor excited by such fare. In fact, he’s part of what’s grown into essentially a global coalition of newly minted American brand fans. “This was the best chicken