Donald Trump picked Argentina to beat Spain in the World Cup final. Argentina lost 1-0. They didn’t register a single shot on target. Midfielder Enzo Fernandez got sent off. And now the internet is having a field day with what people are calling the “Trump curse.”
The president told Fox’s Jenny Taft in a pre-recorded interview that he’d thought about it a lot and that it was hard to bet against Lionel Messi. “I hate to get involved, even though politically it doesn’t matter so much,” Trump said. “The head of Argentina is a friend of mine. He’s done a terrific job. But I would say that it’s hard to bet against Messi.”
That endorsement might as well have been a hex. Social media lit up after the final whistle. The Republicans Against Trump account on X posted a clip of Trump’s comments with the caption, “EVERYTHING Trump touches dies.”
This isn’t the first time
Trump sticking his nose into sports has a track record. Before the World Cup knockout rounds, he said he stepped in to get USA striker Folarin Balogun’s red card overturned so he could play against Belgium. The U.S. lost 4-1. Belgium’s official social media account responded with, “Overturn this.”
Back in June, Trump showed up to Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and the Spurs. The Knicks had a 13-game playoff winning streak going. They lost that night. A Knicks fan outside the arena told Variety, “He’s a curse to every team that he picks. He picked the Chiefs to win. They lost. He went to a Mets game. They lost. He went to the Knicks game, picked them to win. We lost.”
Though the Knicks did come back and win the championship eventually, which led some fans to declare the curse broken.
Then there was the Washington Commanders game in November 2025. Trump attended, and the Commanders lost 44-22 to the Lions. After a touchdown, Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown did the “Trump dance.” The Lions collapsed down the stretch, losing five of their last eight games and missing the playoffs. Former NFL star Kenny Stills posted a meme of the dance on social media with the caption, “Trump curse.”
It’s not just sports either. The Independent‘s Holly Baxter wrote that Trump has “an almost supernatural knack for taking situations that are perfectly manageable and transforming them into catastrophes.” She pointed to the Great American State Fair, which suffered crowd chaos and logistical failures. And there’s the $16 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which got hit by algae blooms and a damaged bottom surface after a paint job. Trump blamed it on “deranged vandals.”
Whether the curse is real or just a running joke depends on who you ask. But Argentina’s World Cup final loss is the latest entry in a growing file of Trump-backed teams coming up short.
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