Trump admits World Cup tickets are too expensive—days after Infantino insisted they were ‘market rate’ for America

President Donald Trump acknowledged this week that tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup are too expensive for ordinary fans—a striking admission that puts him at odds with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, his close ally, who just days earlier defended the steep prices as a natural consequence of hosting the world’s biggest sporting event in America’s premium sports economy. “I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest,” Trump told the New York Post, referring to the $1,000-plus prices for World Cup matches. The comment came just days after Infantino doubled down on the pricing at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, making it one of the sharpest public breaks yet between the two men over the management of the tournament set to kick off across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in June. Infantino’s market defense Infantino, who describes himself as Trump’s friend and has been seen in close proximity to Trump many times in the lead-up to the event, visited the Oval Office last November to jointly unveil the “FIFA Pass” visa program easing travel for international fans. He has been unapologetic about the cost of attending the tournament. “We have to look at the market—we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” Infantino said at the Milken conference. He went further, claiming attending a U.S. college football game couldn’t be done for under $300—a comparison that sports economists and journalists quickly picked apart as misleading. He also attempted to defuse criticism with a joke, saying he would “personally bring a hot dog and a Coke” to anyone who paid resale prices. Infantino also alluded to how these tickets will end up on the resale market “at an even higher price, more than double our price,” implicitly alluding to what Wharton economist Judd Kessler calls “hidden markets” wher