Ever since it was first announced nearly a year ago, the idea of a UFC event on the White House lawn juxtaposed against the start of the World Cup has not sat quite right.
On one hand, you have a sporting event being marketed as a celebration of America’s 250th birthday, promising to be coded in politics and unlikely to reflect the sour mood of the country.
On the other, you have a sporting event that has been a question mark for the world ever since President Trump returned to office in January of 2025. Amid reports of nightmares at airports and ICE raids, would foreign soccer fans find it too difficult or too intimidating to experience what this big, complex country has to offer? Would being on the world’s biggest sporting stage be a mirror for our national discontent or showcase our strengths?
Two very different events: One designed for the president to tell us how great we are, the other exposing our fears that in the eyes of the world, we’re not the country we used to be.
But a surprising phenomenon has sprouted this week as the start of the World Cup draws closer and closer. Those who have arrived from overseas, touring our big cities and small towns, have done a better job reminding us what an awesome, interesting and welcoming country this is than we could ever do ourselves.
Across social media, our foreign guests are expressing their awe for our massive football stadiums, delighting in plates of barbecue, enjoying iconic breakfast chains and being wowed by truck stops. Normally a pit of bile, opening the X app has been a celebration of Americana through the eyes of foreigners who are for the first time experiencing all the great little things we take for granted.
A group of German guys have been roadtripping from Atlanta to the Gulf Coast and beyond, discovering Waffle House (yeah, the food really is great) and Buc-ee’s (so big, so unnecessary, but so well-run) and the Auburn War Eagle flying around Jordan-Hare Stadium during the friendly between Argentina and Iceland (it’s an awesome stadium, but that’s just a standard Saturday for college football fans).
“This is the most ‘The European mind can’t comprehend this moment of my life,’” wrote @FreddyLA7, who has gained hundreds of thousands of followers on X since arriving in the U.S.
I’ve also been following a young Swedish woman named Elsa, who landed first in Indianapolis and discovered ranch dressing.
“Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP,” @elsathora wrote while calling a roadside diner meal “the best food ever.” Now she’s in San Francisco trying cioppino and commenting on the beauty of fire trucks.
There’s a Scottish guy documenting a trip through Texas being welcomed by a pitmaster who wanted to show off his work. There’s yet another German whose eyes are being opened by the stereotype-busting cleanliness and architectural beauty of Chicago. There’s a Brit in Florida posting about stadiums and Big Gulps. There’s a Japanese fan in Nashville calling the neon lights of the honky-tonks “a view so stunning it feels like a lie.”
I was also moved this week by video clips from an Algerian television station following their national team at its training base in Lawrence, Kansas. From young American kids waving Algerian flags to older folks telling a reporter they didn’t know a thing about Algeria but wanted to make sure people watching back home knew their team was going to be embraced by the local community, that’s the America that should make us all proud to be co-hosting this global event.
Maybe the World Cup is exactly what this country needed to feel a little better about ourselves, if for no other reason than a reminder that despite our problems and our politics, we have a lot of good people and a lot of really cool stuff at our fingertips. Seeing it through the eyes of others has cleansed the soul in a way UFC White House lawn fights, concerts and parades never will.
For a long time now, no matter which person or political party has occupied the White House, polls consistently show the majority of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. That may well be true in a lot of categories.
But a big, corporate 250th birthday national party and all the bells and whistles that go along with it will never do a better job convincing us how amazing our country is than a handful of random European soccer fans documenting their experiences on social media. Maybe some of them are pandering or engagement farming, but who cares?
Just look at the numbers: These posts are getting millions of views and thousands of comments, mostly from Americans who are like, “Yeah, that’s us!” and flooding their feeds with recommendations.
Because ultimately, despite the current government’s slant toward isolationism, I believe most Americans want to be liked. We want to show visitors that we are more than the scary headlines they read in their newspapers. We want to introduce them to the uniquely American things we enjoy because we hope they’ll enjoy them, too. That’s just how we are, and this World Cup can be a turning point not only in how others view us, but how we view ourselves.
Inevitably, there will be some warts shown, too. If reports on ticket sales and hotel bookings are correct, the number of visitors may be lower than what FIFA initially expected. There could be ugly incidents at stadiums, reports of foreigners being harassed, visa issues, who knows.
That’s America, too. In a place this big, this diverse and sometimes this unwieldy, there is no such thing as perfection. In the immortal words of Kevin Durant at the 2024 Olympics: “A lot of bull**** happens in our country. But a lot of great things happen, too.”
As the World Cup begins, there are plenty of reasons to reflect on America’s place in the world at the moment. There’s a lot going on domestically and internationally to cause stress at home and frustration abroad.
But when the party’s over next month, those who came will have a better understanding of who we are and those of us who meet them in bars or restaurants or stadiums will see ourselves more clearly. That’s how international sport at its best is supposed to work. It’s the best birthday present America could get.
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