Forget sending troops to Greenland, reciprocity of customs duties, supplications and admonitions of all kinds: all of these measures will have no effect on Donald Trump and his expansionist projects. Faced with the megalomania of a neuropath suffering from acute narcissism, only one thing can work and bring him back to earth, the prospect of a humiliation from which he will have great difficulty recovering.
And what is the greatest humiliation that Europe can inflict on it, if not the prospect of a Football World Cup without the presence of its best teams? Imagine a competition where the opening match would pit Curaçao against Cape Verde, while the final would feature a summit meeting between Panama and Uzbekistan, of these “shithole country” the mere mention of which causes the President of the United States to break out in hives and other delirious outbursts.
A World Cup without European nations would be like organizing a film festival devoid of its American stars or a charity gala where Juliette Binoche would be absent for once, or even a petition for Palestine without the signature of Annie Ernaux: an aberration, nonsense, a snub, a rebuff so scathing that Donald Trump would prefer to dismiss himself than continue his mandate.
In a world dominated by images, the simple sight of Donald Trump condemned to hand over the prestigious trophy to a Ghanaian or Iranian player would have the effect of an explosion much more powerful than any carpet bomb thrown on Greenland. For a president who constantly boasts of being the first to have accomplished this or that feat since humanity existed, he would be right for once. Never until now, apart from Africa in 1966, has an entire continent boycotted a World Cup.
If Europe intends to show Donald Trump what it is, what better example than to raise the specter of a unilateral boycott? The sponsors would walk away, the stadiums would empty, the mockery would fly. It would be the biggest snub ever inflicted on an American administration since the Bay of Pigs landings, an earthquake of such magnitude that the American president would be forced to negotiate and revise downwards his desires for expansion.
In the absence of having an army worthy of the name, Europe holds in its hands a real diplomatic bomb capable of softening the warlike moods of Donald Trump.
The World Cup against Greenland: here it is deal to offer him. Let us just remember the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936: sport has always been a formidable vector of propaganda. Donald Trump is perfectly aware that a successful World Cup has no equivalent in terms of soft power. This is the opportunity or never to show the eyes of the world its power, its grandeur, its mastery, its wealth, its splendor, its insolent success.
The opposite is just as true. A failed World Cup, without stakes, contested in front of empty stands, is the assurance of damaging the pride of the organizing country. Not to mention the loss in terms of money and image. A real industrial disaster. In the absence of having an army worthy of the name, Europe holds in its hands a real diplomatic bomb capable of softening the warlike moods of Donald Trump.
If Europe threatened to boycott the World Cup co-hosted by the United States (with Canada and Mexico), Donald Trump would back down. He would have no other choice. A leader as infatuated as him, as infatuated with himself, will never ignore such a high-profile event. Donald Trump knows the evocative power of football, its part of dreams. Even if he doesn’t understand anything about the game itself, he knows its universality. Faced with the prospect of handing over a World Cup to its winner in front of billions of viewers, everything fades away. Even the possibility of seizing a piece of territory located in the depths of the Arctic.
And if that wasn’t enough, Europe would threaten to reserve the competition’s programming for the only two other organizing countries, Mexico and Canada. If the US president were still stubborn, there would be one last shot left: leaving it to Greenland and Venezuela to replace the United States as host countries of the next World Cup… Donald Trump would never get over it.
