JD Vance had a message for football fans coming to the US for the World Cup and it was a shocking own-goal visible from space

Football fans from 48 countries around the world will descend on the US next year for the World Cup, and very exciting it promises to be.

Except when the US was awarded the competition Donald Trump wasn’t in the White House, and as no-one anywhere needs reminding the country is a rather different place in the 100-plus days since the president’s second coming.

And no-one better captures how the nation has changed than the vice president himself, JD Vance, who had a message for football fans planning to travel to the country next year.

VANCE: We’ll have visitors from close to 100 countries. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games. But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home, otherwise they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem

AUDIENCE: pic.twitter.com/AzJyFscFZG

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 6, 2025

As welcomes go we wouldn’t exactly characterise that as ‘warm’, it has to be said (that’s Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, just in case that wan’t already obvious).

And these people surely said it best.

1.

Hilarious. Threatening visitors before they book their tickets! Genius! https://t.co/bpA5UPYuJq

— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) May 6, 2025

2.

He turned a World Cup welcome into a fear-mongering deportation line.
Zero applause. Zero charisma. Zero clue.

— Nikos Unity (@nikosunity) May 6, 2025

3.

Brilliant to threaten tourists with being arrested by ICE and dumped into a detention center. Very humorous, especially coming from an administration that did exactly that to two German teenagers a couple of weeks ago. https://t.co/M5T9imbIgQ

— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) May 6, 2025

4.

Vance is the most socially inept politician I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

— Bill the Beaver (@TrueNorthStr0ng) May 6, 2025

5.

Question: Why would anyone come watch the World Cup or the Olympics here, when we have made it clear so many are not welcome? https://t.co/E0qExQNIC5

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 6, 2025

6.

These guys are doing great things for tourism. pic.twitter.com/xp4EDNCQXh

— Matt (Taylor’s Version) (@MattMMPLS) May 6, 2025

7.

Is alienating a global paying audience a move from Art of the Deal? https://t.co/eEVrIkEWXg

— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) May 7, 2025