From golfing with Trump to the World Cup, Andrew G...

playInside the U.S. Plan for the 2026 World Cup (2:31) WHEN ANDREW GIULIANI first heard about the job, he called the West Wing. Within a week, he said, he was pitching President Donald Trump on why he was the best choice to lead the federal government's preparations for the World Cup -- and why even though he didn't have any law enforcement experience, he should be put in charge of a coalition of cabinet secretaries, federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies such as the FBI, the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security. Giuliani is coy about what exactly he said in his pitch. "Some of that I want to leave between the president and myself," he told ESPN. "But what I said was simply I think that there is no better opportunity to be able to show off America's true greatness than over the course of this 40-day period, over our 250th birthday, that is the World Cup." According to Giuliani, Trump told him he would "think about it," and after a series of interviews with the Secretary of Homeland Security and "a few others in the West Wing," Giuliani received word that he would become the executive director of the White House FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force. "I was obviously very, very happy for a moment, and then you realize the responsibility, right?" he said. What Giuliani lacks in experience, he makes up for in a direct connection to Trump and what Giuliani says is an ability to anticipate what the president wants. But as the tournament opens Thursday, Giuliani knows he has a high-stakes assignment ahead, the success of which will be measured in the starkest of terms over the next six weeks. "We have a zero-fail mission," he said. "We are focused on making sure nothing goes wrong." GIULIANI, 40, HAS known Trump -- whom he describes as "like an uncle" -- for most of his life thanks to his father Rudy, mayor of New York in the 1990s when Trump was a real estate magnate in the city. But their relationship was forged on the golf course, where young Andrew had a standing game on Saturdays with the future president, he said. "Developing that rapport and learning from him for 30 years now, it's really helped in trying to address some of the problem sets but also understanding where the president may be on something," he said. As leader of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, Giuliani attended the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in December. Brian Snyder-Reuters via Imagn ImagesFar from being a liability, his relationship with the president is partly what makes him good at his current job, he said. He sometimes goes weeks without talking to Trump -- "he's got a few important things that he's dealing with" -- but said a lifetime of experience helps him anticipate how Trump will see an issue. "That's really been one of the strong parts of the role is always having a feel for where the president is on stuff," he said. When Trump announced Giuliani's appointment in May 2025, he joked to the cameras, "It's a big post. You better do well, Andrew." The White House did not provide further comment when ESPN asked for the president's take on Giuliani's pitch. Giuliani asked his father for advice on how to assemble the right team, but more than anything, he said Rudy instilled in him the right mindset for the job. "It's never giving up. It's always making sure that you're looking under every single rock," Andrew said. "You don't want to make assumptions in this job at all." He recently traveled to South Florida to see his father, who was hospitalized in May for a severe case of pneumonia in what Giuliani called "a very near-death health scare." Rudy was unconscious when Andrew arrived but woke up the next day. "After a few minutes, he looked at me and he said, 'What the hell are you doing here? You need to get back to D.C,'" Giuliani said. Giuliani has spent nearly his entire life under media scrutiny and was famously parodied by comedian Chris Farley on "Saturday Night Live" in 1994, when at just 7 years old, he stole the show at his father's swearing-in ceremony by blowing kisses, fist pumping and yawning throughout the inaugural address. After graduating from Duke, where he unsuccessfully sued the school after being kicked off the golf team, he briefly went pro. He won the Metropolitan Open in 2009, earning $27,500. At the time, he said it was "a big-time first step." But his golf career never took off, and by 2016 he had given up his pro status and said he would pursue a career in finance or real estate. Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley, Shaka Hislop and others to bring you the latest highlights and debate the biggest storylines. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only). A year later, after Trump was elected president for the first time, Giuliani joined the White House as an associate director for the Office of Public Liaison. In that role, he said he brought teams in for White House visits and helped leagues restart competition during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Tr

From golfing with Trump to the World Cup, Andrew G...

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