Revenge
of the ‘hellhole’: Belgium eyes payback in US World Cup clash
Donald
Trump has targeted the western European country dating back to his first run
for president.
Laurens
Cerulus
07/06/2026,
5:26pm ET
BRUSSELS
— When the United States faces Belgium in the World Cup’s round-of-16 match on
Monday, the politically messy, self-effacing wannabe middle power will be
eyeing revenge.
First,
for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 remark that living in its
capital, Brussels, was “like living in a hellhole,” the start of a
still-ongoing diatribe about the impact of immigration on the European Union.
And
second, for a controversial decision made Sunday night by the FIFA organizers
to lift U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban — freeing him up to play
against Belgium — that has sparked outrage in the small Western European
country.
“This
decision clearly raises many questions,” Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister
Maxime Prévot told POLITICO on Monday. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever
responded ironically and shared an image of his cat on social media that read:
“Red card? I’ll play anyway.”
“True
strength lies in winning with fair play [and by following all the rules].
That’s what Belgium will do,” Jacqueline Galant, Walloon sports minister from
the French-speaking liberal Reformist Movement, said on X.
The White
House involvement in lobbying FIFA to scrap the ban also sparked condemnation
well beyond Belgian borders.
“Red
cards are not overturned by political phone calls,” former FIFA President Sepp
Blatter, who was himself ousted in a massive corruption scandal that rocked the
world football governing body, said on X on Monday. “Football must never become
a playground for political power.”
European
football federation UEFA said in a statement on Monday the decision “crossed a
red line” before blasting, “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented,
incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”
In some
ways, the clash between the U.S. and Belgium reflects a deeper ideological
divide.
The
European country hosts the headquarters of defense alliance NATO and is a
co-founding nation of the EU — multilateral institutions that Trump and his
MAGA movement have railed against from the White House.
Belgium
is a political labyrinth, made up of several governments sharing control, with
a federal government composed of five political parties ranging everywhere from
the right wing to center-left. The country prides itself on its ability to
forge political compromises. (It also holds the world record for the longest
time taken to form a government.)
It is the
antithesis of government when viewed from the vantage point of a U.S. president
who is expanding executive power, bulldozing over the separation of powers and
whose political success is rooted in confrontation and polarization, rather
than compromise.
Belgian
politics is a system of consensus, with strong checks and balances to keep
executive power under control, said Carl Devos, Belgian political scientist at
the University of Ghent. “The kind of politics that Trump practices, with so
much power concentrated in the hands of one man, is unthinkable” for Belgians.
In
international politics, too, “Belgium makes up for its smaller size by
promoting diplomacy and rulesetting. And so respecting the rules is crucial for
it. What Trump is doing clashes fundamentally with our political culture,”
Devos said.Trump’s intervention in the Balogun suspension is only the most
recent example of that.
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