President Donald Trump said on Monday (July 6) he asked FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to review a red-card foul against USA striker Folarin Balogun and that he did not think the foul called by the "horrible" referee was fair.

"All I did, I asked for a review, because I didn't think it was a foul," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

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Trump says he asked FIFA chief to review red card foul

VIDEO SHOWS: U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP TAKING QUESTIONS IN OVAL OFFICE

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (JULY 6, 2026) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, DURING OVAL OFFICE PRESSER

2. WHITE FLASHES

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER: ''I wanted to ask you, can you just have a phone call with Gianni Infantino about the red card? And Belgium is appealing the decision.''

TRUMP: ''You're asking me about the whole soccer thing? So yeah, I did. I spoke to Gianni, who's highly respected, who's produced the most successful World Cup in history by, they say, four times.''

4. WHITE FLASH

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

''So I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well. Really well. And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. Like you can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot when you're going, no, these were two great athletes that got tangled up and this referee who is a little bit suspect if you check, if you check his past. I don't want to say that because I don't like to create controversy, but but very suspect. And if you'd like, I'll provide you with the past. He made a call that nobody could believe. You know, even people on the other side, they said, 'oh, we got lucky. Wow.' That's. And it's very interesting. They say they don't show them in slow motion. And I never realized that. I never heard of that before, that they're not allowed to review in slow motion because it's so different, because you'll take one little quarter of a second and you'll see that a hand is touching a neck or you see something, whereas when you see it in fast motion, it will look like two guys collided, which is really what happened. They got sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong. And he's our best player or one of our best players, a very vital player. And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game. At least the next game. I said, boy, that's a big you know, if it happened to another player, it would have been unfair. But when they take your best player or just about they have some great players, but and they say you can't play, that's very unfair. That's you know, it's one thing to penalize somebody for the game, but how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet is very unfair. You can't do that. So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who's highly respected and by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold. And it was good before this started. But, you know, he really pushed it in this country. I'm the one that got them to do it.''

6. WHITE FLASH

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

''But all I did, all I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. And, you know, again, I'm good at this. If I didn't think it was a foul, I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled. That was not a that was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different. And I think it's I think it's a terrible if they wouldn't allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best, maybe among the best players on the team to play. I think it would have had a big stain and I related just that feel. I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell them what to do. But, and I don't believe he made the decision. I think it was a committee that made the decision. And they made the right decision because, number one, it wasn't a foul. And you want to see a game with your best players. You don't want to say, how would you feel if I took, you know, we take, Messi out with low, you know, he ran into somebody or we took Ronaldo. Ronaldo. He bumped into somebody. We're going to take you out of a game. He's great. Well, Harry Kane, Harry Kane, we're going to take you out of the game, Harry, because you happen to hit somebody a little bit harder than you can't. You can't do that. If you would have taken him out I think I think it would have really stained this incredible champion(ship). We got to have our best players and they've got. Belgium's got a great team, by the way. We have our best players and they have to have their best and if we win or we lose, it's fair. Otherwise let's say we lost them and we lose a game. It would be a terrible thing. So I think they made a really brilliant decision. I think the referee's call was horrible and nobody talks about that. They talk about the red card like it's fine. Nobody talks, the referee's decision to red card. I didn't know what the hell a red card was when I found out. I said, you got to be kidding. This guy just hands up, okay, your best player is not going to play next week or in the next game. I said, wow, that's a lot of power. That's terrible. But then I looked at his past and it wasn't so great. Okay.''

8. WHITE FLASH

9. TRUMP LISTENING TO A QUESTION