Trump Told FIFA’s President He Wanted Answers on That Red Card. Then He Came After the Referee.

Donald Trump doesn’t know much about soccer. He said as much himself. But when a red card flipped the U.S. men’s national team’s World Cup game against Belgium, the president made a phone call. And then some more happened.

NBC’s White House correspondent Monica Alba confirmed that a U.S. government official described Trump’s call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino as an effort to “better understand” why Folarin Balogun got ejected. The official said the U.S. government presented additional evidence during the appeal, which helped get the call overturned before Monday night’s match.

But that’s not where the story ends.

A video posted by Transfer News Live on X shows Trump going after the referee, Brazil’s Raphael Claus, directly. In the footage, Trump called the red card “horrible” and “very unfair,” saying it was just two athletes colliding by accident. Then he escalated.

“This referee, who is a little bit suspect — if you check his past,” Trump said. “I don’t want to say that because I don’t like to create controversy, but he is very suspect. If you’d like, I’ll provide you with his past.”

The clip also features Trump admitting he had no idea what a red card was until someone explained it to him. “I said, ‘You gotta be kidding!’”

The “suspect” label Trump threw out there isn’t random. It pulls from real drama back in Brazil. In 2024, Claus became the target of Botafogo’s American owner John Textor, who pushed a match-fixing conspiracy theory fueled by AI reports and got a Senate investigation going. Textor ran a full media campaign and demanded Claus be suspended. Brazilian courts, police, and the STJD — the country’s sports justice court — found zero evidence of corruption. The case was dismissed. Claus was legally cleared and recognized as a victim of false accusations.

So global soccer authorities have cleared Claus. American fans, though, have been using that old controversy to trash him online. Trump’s comments just gave that narrative a massive amplifier.

Balogun got to play against Belgium. The U.S. moved on. But the president calling out a ref by name and hinting at some shady past that doesn’t actually hold up — that’s not going away quietly.