Trump Blasts $1,000 World Cup Tickets: ‘I Wouldn’t Pay It Either, To Be Honest’

President Donald Trump has strongly criticized the exorbitant ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, stating that even he would refuse to pay the roughly $1,000 required to attend the United States men’s national team opener against Paraguay next month.

In an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Trump expressed shock when informed of the cost for the June 12 match at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. “I did not know that number. I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you,” Trump said . The president’s remarks came just hours after FIFA President Gianni Infantino publicly defended the pricing model at a conference in Beverly Hills.

The controversy surrounds the steep cost of attending the tournament, which Infantino has justified by pointing to market dynamics in the United States. “We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” Infantino explained, adding that in the U.S., it is challenging to attend a college game for under $300 . He also argued that because ticket resale is permitted in the U.S., setting prices too low would only allow scalpers to profit through massive markups.

Data shows that the average ticket price for the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium has soared to approximately $13,000, a staggering increase from the roughly $1,600 average for the 2022 championship in Qatar. On secondary markets, prices have escalated even further, with reports of four final tickets being listed for as high as $2.3 million on an official FIFA resale platform.

Trump, who helped secure the tournament for the United States during his first term, expressed disappointment that the high costs might prevent his working-class supporters from attending. “If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed,” he stated. “I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go”.

The president suggested his administration might look into the pricing issue, adding, “I haven’t seen that, but I would have to take a look at it”. Despite his criticism of the individual ticket prices, Trump acknowledged the tournament’s overwhelming commercial success, noting that FIFA has already sold approximately five million tickets and set “every record in the book”.