Boston Mayor Wu Bounces This Futbol

Trump Tries to Yank the World Cup — Mayor Wu Reminds Him He Doesn’t Call the Shots

The latest Donald Trump tantrum — this time aimed at Mayor Michelle Wu — is one more episode in the endless reruns of threat, projection, and performative rage. This week he threatened to “call Gianni” of FIFA, as if he could somehow yank the 2026 World Cup matches out of Boston because he doesn’t like Boston’s sanctuary-city policies.

I’m from Boston, and I took this one personally.

He can’t. It’s bluster. But it’s also designed to provoke fear — the same fear, fatalism, nihilism, and cynicism he injects into every headline, every crowd, every policy memo that isn’t a policy at all, just a tantrum typed in caps.

Boston didn’t flinch.
Mayor Wu clapped back with facts and calm — “There’s no ability to take away the World Cup games … even if they live in the White House currently.” She made clear that the hosting rights are locked in by contract and by the architecture of the tournament — not at the whim of one man.

That’s what bullies like Trump hate most: women who don’t scare easy — and cities that don’t kneel.

Boston’s defiance is part of its DNA.

Johann Schott captured that spirit perfectly in his cartoon “Bounce This Futbol!” — an orange-and-black soccer ball mid-air, grinning like a jack-o’-lantern. The smile is all menace and ego, the color unmistakably Trumpian. The bounce arcs are Boston’s rhythm — the comeback line of a city that’s been through revolution, fire, flood, bombs, curse, and comeback.

We don’t flatten; we rebound.

And the stakes are real. Boston is set to host seven matches in the 2026 World Cup at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough — five group-stage games, one Round of 32 match, and a quarter-final. The venue is re-branded as “Boston Stadium” for the tournament.

Ticket sales are already extremely competitive, and hospitality packages have sold out in minutes — clear evidence the city is ready and the demand is real. While Trump claimed the games are “sold out,” official ticket phases show some matches fully booked and others still cycling through limited inventory — close to capacity, but not gone.

During the same tirade, Trump sneered that “She’s bad, but at least she’s not stupid” — a line dripping with back-handed misogyny and racial coding anyone who’s lived here long enough can read without subtitles.

It was aimed squarely at Wu in the context of her lawful sanctuary-city stance, because she refuses to bow or break. Wu is Asian-American, not Black, and that distinction matters: when you’ve grown up around Boston’s races, you know what the messages are — and you know how to read between the lines. Trump’s racist insults, no matter how nuanced, are unacceptable from anyone — especially a president of the United States.

We know what it means to be tested. When bombs tore through the Marathon finish line on Boylston Street, this city didn’t fall apart — it came together. Out of that pain rose the words Boston Strong, and they still mean something here.

And as former Red Sox legend Big Papi reminded the world on that day, “This is our effin’ city.” That pride never faded — it only evolved.

From tragedy to resilience, from resilience to resistance, Boston has carried that fire forward into the streets once again, showing up in full force for the No Kings rally on October 18.

Tens of thousands filled the Common — one of more than a hundred events across Massachusetts — standing shoulder to shoulder to say no to tyranny and yes to the Constitution. Mayor Wu stood with them, calm and unbothered, because that’s what Boston does best.

We stand up together.
We stand up to bullies.
We are Boston Strong.

This is the city where the original patriots took their stand — where the shot heard ’round the world sparked revolution. We don’t bow to kings, and we don’t take orders from tyrants.

So when Trump tries to threaten Boston — our stadiums, our games, our spirit — he’s really doing what he always does: testing boundaries, spreading poison, seeing who’ll bend.

And we won’t.

We’ll fill those stands, cheer for the world, and remind him this isn’t his turf — and it never was.

Boston doesn’t back down — it bounces back.

Mayor Michelle Wu reminded Trump that he doesn’t call the shots — her expression said it all: “Bounce This Futbol.”