President Donald Trump is "fully supportive" of the United States' joint bid with Mexico and Canada to bring the 2026 World Cup to North America.
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati stressed that Trump was "especially pleased that Mexico is a part of it," as he spoke alongside Mexican federation president Decio de Maria and Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani on Monday at One World Trade Center in New York City.
"We're not going to get too much into politics today in discussing American foreign policy or anyone else's foreign policy," Gulati said. "What I can tell you is we have very specifically addressed this with the president, he is fully supportive of the joint bid, encouraged the joint bid and especially pleased with the fact that Mexico is participating in this joint bid with us."
The CONCACAF nations are hoping to bring the World Cup to North America for the first time since the U.S. hosted the competition in 1994. The three-country bid is the front-runner to win the right to host the competition, with European and Asian countries unable to submit proposals for the event.
When news of the joint bid first emerged, soccer officials and fans wondered what sort of reaction would come from Trump, whose campaign was partly centered around the idea of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting illegal Mexican immigrants from the United States.
"Regarding of anything else that may have been said during the campaign or after the fact, I'm not going to speak for the president on those," Gulati said. "[Press Secretary] Mr. [Sean] Spicer gets to do that every day."