It all started with Folarin Balogun’s red card in the 64th minute of USA’s R32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. But FIFA suspended the red card, and the player was allowed to participate in the next match against Belgium. Following a FIFA review – one that came after President Trump personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to request a second look – the suspension was delayed. Although Trump later denied influencing the outcome, saying, “All I did was ask for a review,” Megan Rapinoe wasn’t too pleased.

On The Daily Show, the two-time Women’s World Cup champion suggested the controversy may have unsettled a team that had been thriving until then.

“Certainly not well,” she said when asked about the situation. “It didn’t give them the boost, maybe, that they were thinking it would or that Trump was hoping that it would.

“I don’t know. It seemed like it kind of, like, threw them off their game. They had such a good vibe. I feel like they had that underdog kind of vibe going. And then you-know-who got involved, and everyone was like, ‘Nope. We don’t like it.'”

Rapinoe even joked that Belgium’s players may have found extra motivation.

Looking back to the actual incident, Balogun’s case was unprecedented. It marked the first time since 1962 that FIFA had overturned or, more accurately, suspended the implementation of a World Cup red-card suspension, making the decision one of the tournament’s biggest talking points.

But this wasn’t the first time we saw Megan Rapinoe raising her voice on this issue, nor was it the first time she showcased her dislike for Trump’s actions. Rapinoe had raised similar concerns weeks earlier on her podcast, ‘A Touch More: The Beautiful Game,’ where she described the controversy as a “circus” that distracted the team from its primary focus.

“I think the distraction got to the team for sure in some type of way,” she said, “Whether it was, you know, this red card situation, whether it was being in a public discourse with this president, all of the, you know, shenanigans and chaos that comes with the feelings on both sides of that. Whether you agree with it or not it’s, it’s just like it’s a lot to contend with.”

Coming back to the present, Megan also floated another intriguing possibility: That the U.S. might actually have been better off sticking with the group that had reached the knockout stage without Balogun, arguing that Mauricio Pochettino’s teams often perform best as the “underdogs.”

“We sort of went from like being an underdog, and we’re making this amazing run, and we’ve totally captured the hearts and minds and the attention of the nation to like losing Balogun, which I think probably would have been better for us to play without (Folarin Balogun),” Rapinoe during her chat with ‘A Touch More: The Beautiful Game.’ podcast. “I know that sounds crazy, but like just the way everything played out.

The debate over the USA President’s involvement is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. However, Rapinoe learned early how off‑field attention can surround a team and never show up in the match report.

Megan Rapinoe’s speaks out on criticism faced by the U.S. team after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

In 2019, Rapinoe made headlines by declaring she had no intention of visiting the White House if the United States women’s soccer team successfully defended their title. Her remarks drew a swift response from Trump, who accused her of disrespecting the country, the White House, and the American flag, while urging her to “finish the job” before making such comments.

The USWNT did exactly that, lifting the World Cup in France. But even after the 13-0 victory over Thailand, Rapinoe and several of her teammates chose not to accept Trump’s White House invitation, keeping the divide firmly in place.

Then, four years later, the debate returned. The USWNT suffered a shock Round of 16 exit at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, losing to Sweden in a dramatic penalty shootout. Soon after, Trump used the defeat to criticize the team. Rapinoe wasn’t convinced.

Speaking to The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer, she dismissed Trump’s remarks, saying what Trump said was “fake,” adding, “It’s a compilation of hit words and hot-button words that don’t actually make any sort of sense or square with reality at all.

“And it didn’t make sense to me: In 2019, we were ultra-confident, ultra-swaggy—and won everything. And even though we won, we did it in bad taste, according to our critics. This time, we weren’t confident enough, and we don’t have the right “mentality.” And so we lost. It’s just so disingenuous. There’s no way for us to win, and there’s no way for us to lose.”

The exchange became another chapter in the long-running back-and-forth between Rapinoe and Trump, and this latest reaction from the soccer star is just another part of it.