'Really embarrassing': Gen Z's dislike of Trump also extends to his favorite team

President Donald Trump has made a point to make himself the center of the national conversation on countless topics. But it turns out the president’s insistence on inserting himself into sports may be spoiling the popularity of even that.

“Young people are getting very into the World Cup, hosting watch parties, making fan-edits, and leaning into sideline fashion,” wrote Gen Z analyst Rachel Janfaza on her “Up and Up” substack. “And while Team USA is out, many young Americans still have a team to cheer for because they weren’t rooting for the US men’s national soccer team in the first place.”

“The U.S. kind of seems like they don’t really need the support right now,” said Nicholas, 18, from Arizona in a survey.

After he heard that Trump had appealed directly to FIFA President Gianni Infantino to overturn American striker Folarin Balogun’s red card (the White House maintains the phone call between Trump and Infantino was just an inquiry and didn’t exert any pressure), Nicholas said he was even less interested in backing his home team.

“Trump calling FIFA and getting it dropped like that’s just really embarrassing on a world stage. This is why people don’t really like the U.S. for a lot of reasons,” said Nicolas. “It seems like we have this power imbalance over the rest of the countries. It’s kind of like the parallel with Trump having a lot of corruption problems right now in his administration. It’s just, it’s a bad look for the country.”

“Poll after poll has shown that President Donald Trump’s support among young people has plummeted since he retook office, with his economic policies being a major reason,” wrote MS NOW political analyst Ja'han Jones on Monday. “And Trump hasn’t helped his likability by describing the affordability crisis as a ‘hoax’ and downplaying the need to lower housing costs.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made no improvements on things Monday when she blasted her own generation for having no love for the privileged billionaire president –because of their sense of privilege.

“My generation — I hate to say it, Gen Z and those younger than me — have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths, just getting everything handed to them,” Leavitt told Fox News host Jesse Watters last week, ignoring the fact that Trump derived his own wealth from his father. And despite surveys showing the generation has less access to money and housing than their parents and grandparents.

Jones added that “as a 27-year-old member of the most corrupt and shamelessly self-enriching administration in modern U.S. history — and someone who has used her taxpayer-funded job to spread lies and launch childish insults on its behalf — Leavitt is arguably the epitome of entitlement.”

But Janfaza reports young Americans’ choice to back a foreign team comes amid a growing generational gap in national pride, with only 34 percent of young Americans 18–29 being proud of being American. Meanwhile, 43 percent of Americans ages 30–49 a proud of their status and 59 percent of Americans ages 50–64 are proud of being American.

These numbers appear to reflect the younger generation’s financial insecurity.

Other young Americans speaking with Janfaza said they felt the sting of a missed opportunity by disliking their own team and its connection to such a decisive president.

“I feel like, in a country where so much division already exists, it’s unfortunate to put aside an event like sporting, which can unite a country so much,” said Marianna.

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