Humiliated on the World Stage. Again.

Donald once again made somebody else's victory entirely about himself.

Donald Trump refusing to leave the stage after Spain won the World Cup.

The 2026 World Cup came to an end on Saturday in New Jersey, where Spain defeated Argentina one nil in extra time to claim only its second World Cup championship. After six weeks of competition, the Spanish squad finally got its hands on the trophy after an extraordinarily long drought. It was a bizarre match because Spain had something like twenty shots on goal while Argentina, remarkably, had none until extra time.

I honestly could not believe Spain won by only a single goal. Argentina’s goalkeeper was phenomenal and kept his team alive for as long as humanly possible. But in the end, Spain prevailed. When FIFA President Gianni Infantino stepped forward to present the World Cup trophy, however, somebody else apparently decided he had won the tournament. Donald Trump absolutely refused to move out of the way as Spain celebrated its victory.

I do not think anything better encapsulates who Donald Trump is than that truly pathetic moment. Pathetic. Shameful. Humiliating. Embarrassing. Take your pick because every one of those words applies. That is what losers do. They bask in the reflected glory of people who actually earned something. Donald once again managed to make somebody else’s triumph about himself. Thank you, once again, for humiliating America on the world stage.

Fortunately, we also live in the age of Photoshop. Donald may have planted himself front and center during Spain’s celebration, but Spain’s official championship photograph tells a different story. Donald is nowhere to be found because, of course, he did not belong there in the first place. He did not play for Spain. He did not play for Argentina. He would not be able to kick a soccer ball more than a yard if you paid him and, of course, he would happily let you pay him to try.

There is another reason Spain probably was not interested in immortalizing Donald alongside its players. Over the last year, he has repeatedly insulted, denigrated, and threatened the Spanish government simply because Spain refused to capitulate to his demands, particularly regarding his illegal war of choice against Iran. Yet there he was, attempting to insert himself into one of the country’s proudest sporting moments as though none of that history existed. That level of entitlement has become so commonplace that we almost expect it now.

The reaction from the crowd at MetLife Stadium was equally revealing. As Donald walked onto the pitch, which for those Americans unfamiliar with international football simply means the field, the fans made their feelings unmistakably clear.

This is how the crowd greeted Donald:

Boo!

That was not simply a rejection of Donald personally. It was an auditory demonstration of just how respected America has become throughout much of the world under his leadership. It was also a useful reminder that it is no longer just Americans who cannot stand Donald. He has managed to unite people around the globe in their contempt for his behavior. That is quite an accomplishment, although probably not the one he was hoping for.

If this all seems strangely familiar, it should. During last year’s FIFA Club World Cup trophy ceremony, Donald helped present medals to Chelsea after its victory over Paris Saint-Germain. Most Americans probably did not notice because international club football does not receive much attention here. What happened next, however, was vintage Donald. After taking possession of one of the medals, he appeared to slip it into his pocket before walking away.

America has often been described as a kakistocracy under Donald, government by the least qualified people imaginable. Increasingly, however, it also resembles a kleptocracy because nobody steals quite like that guy. I have to admit, I was ninety nine percent certain he was going to try to walk away with the World Cup trophy itself. At this point, that almost would have been predictable.

While Donald was busy embarrassing himself at a soccer match, the consequences of his foreign policy continued to grow more severe. Axios reports that oil prices have now climbed above ninety dollars a barrel, nearly thirty dollars higher than they were before Donald launched his illegal and unconstitutional war of choice against Iran. Gasoline prices have climbed to nearly four dollars a gallon as the conflict enters its fifth month with no sign of ending. Donald continues to demonstrate that he is incapable of reaching a deal while ordinary Americans continue paying the price.

Returning from the World Cup aboard Air Force One, Donald was asked about the Iran war. Once again, the justification for remaining in the conflict shifted dramatically from what he had previously claimed.

This is what Donald said:

Four or five weeks. Well, you keep hitting me. This is a far bigger job that we’re doing. We were doing a little job of stopping them from having a certain capability. Now we’re just ending it. So it’s really not the same thing. What we’re doing now is we’re ending any chance where they can have a nuclear missile. If you look at it after a week and a half, not four weeks, a week and a half, two weeks, we stopped them from probably, but I don’t want to have the word probably.

We stopped them from probably. I do not even know what that sentence means. Donald now insists this has become a much larger mission than originally described. First, we were supposedly preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability. Now we are permanently ending every possibility that it ever could. Never mind that Donald spent more than a year insisting that objective had already been accomplished. Never mind that President Obama actually achieved precisely that through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action before Donald recklessly dismantled it. The rationale for this war changes every time Donald opens his mouth because the war itself has slipped completely beyond his control.

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Iran, which Donald repeatedly claimed was on the verge of collapse, is now wealthier and more influential throughout the region than it was before the war began. Donald refuses to articulate a coherent objective because there no longer appears to be one. Instead, he invents a new explanation each time somebody asks why American troops remain trapped in a conflict he promised would be short and decisive.

As this disaster continues, three more American service members have been killed. Two died in Jordan. One was killed in northern Iraq. Another remains missing. Those are not numbers. They are Americans whose families have paid the ultimate price because Donald launched a war he neither understood nor prepared for.

When asked about those losses, this is what Donald said:

Well, we feel very badly, but those great people, those great patriots who are out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They’ve lost everything almost militarily. They’ve got very little left. They’ve got some missiles. They’ve got some drones. They’ve got some manufacturing ability, not much. We control the Strait. They don’t control anything. So we’ll see what happens, but we hit them very hard again tonight.

There is an obvious contradiction here. If Iran has truly lost everything militarily, why are American troops still dying? If Iran no longer poses a meaningful threat, why does Donald keep announcing new retaliatory strikes? He cannot simultaneously claim complete victory while acknowledging that Iran continues killing American service members. The reality is that Iran still possesses significant military capabilities, continues controlling the pace of this conflict, and has demonstrated that it is willing to absorb tremendous pain in order to drag the war out. Donald is the one desperately trying to negotiate an exit because he has no strategy beyond dropping more bombs.

The New York Times also reported that an earlier Iranian strike injured dozens of American service members and damaged multiple helicopters, yet the Pentagon withheld that information from the public. Military officials defended their silence by arguing that releasing additional details could provide Iran with useful intelligence for future attacks. That explanation might carry more weight if this administration had not repeatedly compromised sensitive information through its own breathtaking incompetence.

Central Command has also stopped releasing daily strike totals inside Iran, making it increasingly difficult to understand the true scope of this conflict. We are receiving less information about American casualties and even less about the number of Iranian civilians who are being killed. The administration that claimed it wanted to liberate the Iranian people appears increasingly determined to prevent Americans from learning what this war is actually costing.

I have said this many times because it remains true. We should never elect somebody who cares about nothing except money and his own enrichment. Anybody who cares about nothing but money ultimately cares very little about other human beings. That is exactly what we are witnessing now. American service members become statistics. Iranian civilians disappear behind classified reports. Human suffering becomes secondary to Donald’s political image and personal ambitions.

We have to do better next time. Above all else, we need to bring empathy back.