Trump says he asked FIFA to review US World Cup star Folarin Balogun's red card ban — Transcript

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1. 0:00I wanted to ask you, can you describe
2. 0:01your phone call with Johnny Infantino
3. 0:03about the red card and Belgium is
4. 0:04appealing the decision? What's your
5. 0:06>> You're asking me about the whole soccer
6. 0:07thing. So, yeah, I did. I spoke to
7. 0:10Johnny who's highly respected, who's
8. 0:13produced the most successful World Cup
9. 0:15in history by they say four times. This
10. 0:18isn't just a success.
11. 0:20I actually said, Johnny, we've got all
12. 0:23these games. Each one is turning out to
13. 0:25be a Super Bowl and we have all these
14. 0:27games. You know, when you think of it,
15. 0:29every game is like a Super Bowl. Yes. I
16. 0:30watched last night. What a game that was
17. 0:33with Mexico and England. I mean, two
18. 0:36countries. I don't know the players.
19. 0:39Although, I think Kane is a great
20. 0:40player. See, I played golf with him and
21. 0:42I like him a lot. He's a good golfer.
22. 0:44But he's a he's really he's really
23. 0:47great. But I watched and and no reason
24. 0:51for me to watch and you couldn't take
25. 0:52your eyes off the game because I said,
26. 0:55"Johnny, you know, you have all these
27. 0:56games because they added games in a in a
28. 0:59country where really we don't it's not
29. 1:01our main sport to put it mildly and this
30. 1:04has been four times more successful." He
31. 1:06told me last night the numbers are four
32. 1:07times greater. They think 50 or 60
33. 1:10million people are going to be watching
34. 1:11the game tonight. And you know, this are
35. 1:13getting to be Super Bowl numbers, but
36. 1:15you have a game tonight and they think
37. 1:17they were they're projecting a minimum
38. 1:20of 50 million people watching a game. We
39. 1:23call it soccer. It's called football, I
40. 1:24guess, but we can't really call football
41. 1:26because it gets a little there's a
42. 1:27little confusion. So, yeah, you call it
43. 1:29soccer. We're the only ones that do
44. 1:31that, but we have football and
45. 1:32football's great. But I've never seen
46. 1:35anything like it. So, I saw the play and
47. 1:38I'm a person that loves sports and was a
48. 1:40good athlete and I understand sports
49. 1:44really well. Really well.
50. 1:47And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even
51. 1:50an infraction. That was two guys running
52. 1:52full speed that happened to crash into
53. 1:54each other. You can't take your foot and
54. 1:56properly place it on somebody else's
55. 1:58foot when you're going. No, these were
56. 2:01two great athletes that got tangled up
57. 2:05and
58. 2:07this referee who
59. 2:10is a little bit suspect if you check his
60. 2:13if you check his past. I don't want to
61. 2:16say that because I don't like to create
62. 2:18controversy but but very suspect. Uh if
63. 2:22you'd like I'll provide you with the
64. 2:24past. He made a call that nobody could
65. 2:28believe. You know, even people on the
66. 2:30other side, they say, "Oh, we got
67. 2:31lucky." Wow, that's And it's very
68. 2:34interesting. They say they don't show
69. 2:35them in slow motion. And I never
70. 2:37realized that. I never heard of that
71. 2:38before that they're not allowed to
72. 2:40review in slow motion because it's so
73. 2:42different because you'll take one little
74. 2:43quarter of a second and you'll see that
75. 2:46a hand is touching a neck or you see
76. 2:48something. Whereas when you see it in
77. 2:50fast motion, it it will look like two
78. 2:52guys collided, which is really what
79. 2:54happened. They got sort of entangled. He
80. 2:58didn't do anything wrong and he's our
81. 3:00best player or one of our best players.
82. 3:01A very vital player and he gave him a
83. 3:03red card. I didn't know what that meant.
84. 3:05I didn't think it meant much. Then I
85. 3:07started hearing that that means he can't
86. 3:09play in the next game at least in the
87. 3:12next game. I said, "Boy, that's a big,
88. 3:15you know, if it happened to another
89. 3:17player, it would have been unfair." But
90. 3:18when they take your best player or just
91. 3:21about, they have some great players, but
92. 3:23and they say you can't play, that's very
93. 3:27unfair. That's, you know, it's one thing
94. 3:29to penalize somebody for the game, but
95. 3:32how do you penalize them for a game that
96. 3:34hasn't been played yet? It's very
97. 3:35unfair. You can't do that. So, uh, yes,
98. 3:38I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to
99. 3:42a man who's highly respected and by the
100. 3:44way whose level of respect has gone up
101. 3:47tenfold
102. 3:49and he was good before this started but
103. 3:51you know he really pushed it in this
104. 3:53country. I'm the one that got them to do
105. 3:55it. It was not Biden. Biden was asleep.
106. 3:58I got him to do it. In fact it was very
107. 4:00sad because I got him to do it and if
108. 4:03the progression was normal I would have
109. 4:05been retired. Now the Democrats are
110. 4:08saying man we should have just let him
111. 4:10have his way. He would had him. We would
112. 4:12have had him gone. But I said, you know,
113. 4:15the saddest thing is I got the Olympics
114. 4:16and I got the World Cup. I tried to
115. 4:19claim 250 years, too, but that didn't
116. 4:22work. They said that one is what it is.
117. 4:25No, I tried, but it didn't work. But
118. 4:26wait, wait. So, I got him. I so proud of
119. 4:29it. And then I realized, you know, I
120. 4:31wouldn't be president during the because
121. 4:33I would have been out of office by that
122. 4:35time. I felt badly. The beautiful thing
123. 4:37about what I did is I ran. I never
124. 4:40thought of it. And then all of a sudden
125. 4:42I realized, you know, I just got the
126. 4:43Olympics and I totally got that myself.
127. 4:46And I just got FIFA. I got that myself.
128. 4:48We gave a little piece to Canada. Gave a
129. 4:50little piece to Mexico. I got that
130. 4:52myself. And and a lot of And a lot of
131. 4:55people helped like that man right there,
132. 4:56Kevin. A lot of people, you know, that
133. 4:58we worked hard on that and we got it.
134. 5:01And but what we didn't know is how
135. 5:03successful it was going to be. I thought
136. 5:05I didn't know. I said, "Johnny, is
137. 5:06anyone going to show up?" because you
138. 5:08know we're not again we're not really I
139. 5:11think I think soccer is doing much
140. 5:13better but I couldn't imagine if if you
141. 5:16would have said to any very smart of
142. 5:19these like people like this B that the
143. 5:22numbers they're doing now would be
144. 5:24happening they've never seen anything
145. 5:26like it think of it take the most
146. 5:28successful Olympics or the most
147. 5:31successful FIFA and you look at what's
148. 5:34happen you look at the numbers for this
149. 5:35in the United states
150. 5:38uh just compared to FIFA and it's it's
151. 5:41numerous times more. It's not like 10%
152. 5:45more, 2% more, 5% more, which is more
153. 5:47expected. It's like four times more
154. 5:51successful than anything they've ever
155. 5:53done. In fact, I said to Johnny, "Let's
156. 5:56do it again next time." And he said,
157. 6:00"That would be hard." And I said, "No,
158. 6:01no, you do it again, but at the same
159. 6:03time, you give it to somebody else for
160. 6:06the next one. I don't know. It's a
161. 6:07little crazy idea." But all I did, all I
162. 6:10did, I asked for a review because I
163. 6:12didn't think it was a foul. And you
164. 6:15know, again, I'm good at this stuff. I
165. 6:16didn't think it was a foul. I thought it
166. 6:18was two great athletes that crashed into
167. 6:20each other and got entangled. That was
168. 6:21not a that was not a guy punching
169. 6:24somebody in the face or anything that,
170. 6:25you know, would be different. And I
171. 6:28think it's I think it's a terrible if if
172. 6:30they wouldn't allow,
173. 6:33you know, a top player, maybe the best,
174. 6:36maybe among the best players on the team
175. 6:38to play. I think it would have had a big
176. 6:40stain. And uh I related just that feel.
177. 6:44I didn't tell him what to do. I can't
178. 6:45tell him what to do, but uh and I don't
179. 6:48believe he made the decision. I think it
180. 6:49was a committee that made the decision.
181. 6:51And they made the right decision because
182. 6:53number one, it wasn't a foul. And you
183. 6:55want to see a game with your best
184. 6:56players. You don't want to say, "How
185. 6:58would you feel if I took uh uh you know,
186. 7:01we take uh Messi out, look, you know, he
187. 7:04ran into somebody or we took Ronaldo.
188. 7:08Ronaldo, you bumped into somebody. We're
189. 7:11going to take you out of a game. He's
190. 7:12great." Or Harry Kane. Harry Kane, we're
191. 7:15going to take you out of the game,
192. 7:16Harry, because you happen to hit
193. 7:18somebody a little bit harder than You
194. 7:21can't You can't do that. If you would
195. 7:23have taken him out, I think I think it
196. 7:25would have really stained this
197. 7:26incredible champ. We got to have our
198. 7:29best players and they've got Belgium's
199. 7:31got a great team. By the way, we got to
200. 7:33have our best players and they have to
201. 7:35have their best and if we win or we
202. 7:37lose, it's fair. Otherwise,
203. 7:40let's say we lost him and we lose the
204. 7:42game, it would be a terrible thing. So,
205. 7:46I think they made a really brilliant
206. 7:47decision. I think the referee's call was
207. 7:49horrible. And nobody talks about that.
208. 7:51They talk about the red card like it's
209. 7:53fine. Nobody talks the referee's
210. 7:55decision to red card. I didn't know what
211. 7:58the hell a red card was. When I found
212. 7:59out I said, "You got to be kidding. This
213. 8:01guy just hands up." Okay, your best
214. 8:03player is not going to play next week or
215. 8:05in the next game. I said, "Wow, that's a
216. 8:08lot of power. That's terrible." But then
217. 8:10I looked at his past and
218. 8:14it wasn't so great. Okay.
219. 8:18>> Yeah. Mr. President, are you going to
220. 8:19talk to the Belgian prime minister
221. 8:21before the game?
222. 8:22>> I didn't think of it, but I would.
223. 8:24>> He's a good man. But what's your
224. 8:25responsibility?
225. 8:26>> I will tell you this. Um the
226. 8:30people in Belgium, if they win the game,
227. 8:33they can be very proud. If they would
228. 8:36win the game with a player missing, it
229. 8:39would have been a different feeling. You
230. 8:41can't do that. And I'm very glad all I
231. 8:44did was ask for a review. I didn't say
232. 8:45you have to do this. This man is a
233. 8:48smart, tough man. Johnny Infantino. He's
234. 8:50a smart tough man and his stock has gone
235. 8:54through the roof because what the job
236. 8:55he's done has been great and I feel we
237. 8:59have to have all the best players on the
238. 9:01field. You can't take the best players.
239. 9:02Yeah, please. The best
240. 9:03>> on the Trump account. Thank you, Liam.