For nearly a month, President Trump had stayed away from the World Cup, not attending games and instead preoccupying himself with Washington construction projects and a war with Iran.
But as the biggest sporting event on Earth enthralled Americans of all political stripes in cities stretching from coast to coast, the allure proved too much to resist.
The president’s now famous — or infamous, depending on your view — phone call to the president of FIFA before the soccer organization overturned the suspension of an American star produced endless debate about political influence. It also generated locker room bulletin board material for Belgium, which handed the United States a humiliating 4-1 defeat on Monday night.
Belgium’s team celebrated the victory by performing Mr. Trump’s signature dance and posting a two-word message online: “Overturn this.”
The unusual melding of politics and sports underscored a truism of the Trump era: The president has yet to find an area of American, or even global, life where he is unwilling to assert himself. There are seemingly no previously apolitical events that can escape his pull.
It is perhaps unsurprising that Mr. Trump, who loves both sports and the limelight, inserted himself in a situation where previous American presidents might have shown restraint. He has long attempted to capitalize politically on sports controversies. During his first term, he frequently criticized N.F.L. players who knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. He has openly boasted that he uses the issue of transgender athletes as a surefire political winner for Republicans around election time.
And he has found in certain segments of the world of sports a base of support that has at times eluded him in other circles. After Mr. Trump was ostracized from social media platforms and by many in the business community after the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, he received a hero’s welcome at a U.F.C. event. In his second term, when Mr. Trump failed to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, awarded the American president a newly created “FIFA Peace Prize.”
“I’m a person that loves sports and was a good athlete,” Mr. Trump said on Monday. “And I understand sports really well. Really well.”
The president has also shown little regard for the appearance of improper influence that might have kept his predecessors at bay. So when he saw what he called a “very unfair” penalty against the American player Folarin Balogun in the team’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week, he reached out to Mr. Infantino and made a remarkable request that FIFA review the suspension.
Mr. Infantino has insisted that the later reinstatement of Mr. Balogun was a result of “the legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies.” But it was the first time since 1962, when the rules were less clear, that FIFA had overturned an in-tournament World Cup game suspension.
The incident was a reminder of how far Mr. Trump has departed from the practice of one of the predecessors he admires, President Calvin Coolidge, who famously quipped, “Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.”
Mr. Trump instead has inserted himself into nearly every aspect of American life, no matter how big or small. He has sought to pressure colleges and universities on how to run their institutions. He has targeted law firms and taken ownership shares in American companies. He has taken control of important cultural and artistic organizations. And he has put himself at the center of America’s 250th anniversary celebration.
He has also concerned himself with matters as small as the composition of drinking straws and the water pressure in toilets. And, of course, rule changes in football.
But it was his involvement in the other kind of football that sparked global backlash.
The Union of European Football Associations, the governing body of soccer in Europe, said that FIFA’s decision to overturn Mr. Balogun’s suspension “crossed a red line.” The Bosnian soccer association accused Mr. Trump of “government interference.” All of which could make for an awkward situation with Mr. Trump set to hand out the trophy to the eventual winner.
And Iran’s soccer federation, with its country still at war with the United States after Mr. Trump launched thousands of airstrikes, took a special joy in the American defeat at the hands — or feet — of Belgium.
“Now the whole world is dancing to celebrate politics’ humiliating defeat by football,” a spokesman said.
Tariq Panja contributed reporting.
