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Inside Politics

Belgium Appeals FIFA's Decision To Let U.S.A.'s Balogun Play; FIFA Stuns Soccer World By Allowing U.S. Start To Play Tonight; FIFA Reverses U.S. Star's Suspension After Call From Trump; Ideological Battle Inside Democratic Party On Display In Michigan; McMorrow Exit Sharpens Moderate Vs Progressive Clash; Trump Rings NYSE Opening Bell To Promote New "Trump Accounts". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 06, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: President Trump kicks politics onto the pitch. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Right now, the U.S. men's team is preparing for their round of 16 match against Belgium in a prime-time game. Their star, Folarin Balogun, woke up this morning thinking he would be sidelined. Thanks to a red card during the last game. But President Trump picked up the phone and called his good friend FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and complained about what was a really controversial red card call. And then there was a turnaround. FIFA lifted Balogun's suspension rather, something that hasn't happened in more than 60 years. President Trump shared more details about his call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: All I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul, and you know, again, I'm good at this stuff. If they wouldn't allow you know, a top player, maybe the best, maybe among the best players on the team to play. I think it would have had a big stain and I related just that. I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do, but -- and I don't believe he made the decision. I think it was a committee that made the decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Don Riddell joins us now. So, Don, Belgium is appealing, but that seems like a long shot.

DON RIDDELL, CNN ANCHOR, WORLD SPORT: Yeah. I mean, honestly, Dana, who knows what happens now. We're in totally uncharted territory here. Players are booked and sent off in World Cup tournaments all the time, and they are typically suspended for 1, 2, 3, games or more, depending on the severity of the offense. Red cards can be subjective, so there are often complaints, but like it or not, we've never seen anything like this.

So, now we're in this situation where the Belgians are incensed, based on precedent, they could never have thought that something like this might happen. Since it did, they asked FIFA for more information, so they could figure out how to appeal, and they were informed that their inquiry had effectively triggered an appeal, so now they don't really know what to do. U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino says he respects FIFA's decision because he never thought it was a red card in the first place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAURICIO POCHETTINO, UNITED STATES HEAD COACH: I think we celebrate all that decision. We were punished enough against Bosnia and Herzegovina to play with 10 men, 99.9 percent that we all, you know, agree that was an unfair red car.

(Interpreted): I didn't realize that at FIFA headquarters, July 5 was the equivalent of April 1 in Europe. That was news to me. The Belgian Football Association isn't defending itself, it's defending football in general, the integrity and ethics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: Whatever happens, Dana, the stakes couldn't be any higher. This was already the biggest game in the history of the U.S. men's soccer team, and by the way, they last time they played Belgium in a friendly in March, Belgium won five two.

BASH: Trump is taking credit here. Well, kind of. He's taking credit for calling and saying that there should be a review. But how often do we see reviews in the first place, never mind overturning a red card?

RIDDELL: We've never been here before. A red card means a suspension, and that's it. However, FIFA's rules on this are kind of vague, so football's world-governing body has given itself the latitude to change of course if they want to, but that leaves them wide open to accusations of at best inconsistency and at worst corruption.

Last night, England's manager, Thomas Tuchel, wondered if his sent off player, Jarell Quansah might really be banned for their next game against Norway. Maybe King Charles can pick up the phone and make a call. The general reaction to this internationally is outrage, and I think UEFA's position is telling. UEFA is FIFA's equivalent in Europe, and their statement was unequivocal.

They said that FIFA had crossed a red line in no uncertain terms. Here's part of their statement. They said, we express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable decision. Having spoken to fans of soccer football last night, I can tell you that if Balogun plays and if the U.S.A. win, their World Cup run could be forever tainted, Dana?

[12:05:00]

BASH: Thank you so much for giving us a lot of important context there, Don. Appreciate it. And I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters, including World Cup superfan Stephen Collinson. Stephen, you wrote a great piece this morning for cnn.com, really an analysis of Trump's engagement here, and the headline is Trump's red card call stirs political storm around World Cup.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah. I think what was pretty stunning about that press conference at the Oval Office this morning was that the president said, yeah, I didn't think it was a foul. I called up Gianni Infantino, who's the hugely powerful head of FIFA, the world soccer governing body. And then after that a call on the field was changed. We've seen politics enter into sport. Sport is in many ways the most political thing on the entire earth, but for a head of state -- of a host nation getting a call on the field and the subsequent suspension lifted, that is really something extraordinary.

As Don was saying, we've not seen that before, and the problem with it is, and what everybody, apart from the U.S. fans are saying, understandably, is that this upsets the competitive balance of the tournament in the integrity. If an outside politician can come in, and if Trump can do it, why cannot the head of Ghana do it, or the head of a European nation.

Now, are FIFA going to lose control of their own tournament because you're going to get lots of other teams saying, well, if Balogun is not suspended, why is my player suspended? And then it really does go down a rabbit hole. And I think it's a bit of a shame that it could, for people outside the United States detract from the performance of this U.S. team, which has won a lot of fans in this tournament and a tournament which has been a real moment of joy. I think domestically and internationally, it's shown the world a new side of the United States.

BASH: Understanding the controversy outside of the U.S. and maybe even some people inside the U.S. The fact that the call happened, the Balogun slammed into another player was extremely controversial to give him a red card, and which meant that he couldn't play -- wasn't supposed to play in tonight's game.

COLLINSON: Yes. I think the president actually made some pretty good analysis of this incident. He's basically arguing it's not a foul, and with the video review system they now have in soccer, I mean, you could pretty much take any play on the field at any moment, because it's such a fast game, and you could find an infringement.

That said, I mean, you see in European soccer, you see this kind of foul every week that leads to a red card. I think there's a good argument that perhaps they've gone too far in this enforcement, and it was bound to at some point come up in the World Cup and be controversial. It just happened in the most controversial circumstances and that allowed the president to wade into the spotlight.

BASH: Can we talk a little bit about this player, the star player on the U.S. team? His name is Folarin Balogun as we've been discussing. He was born in New York, but he was only born in the U.S. because his mother was denied the ability to fly home after being on vacation in the U.S. because she was too pregnant to get on the plane. After two months in New York, he went home to the U.K., and he played in London soccer clubs. His parents were born in Nigeria, and he was eligible to play for three World Cup teams.

And I bring this up because we are in a time where the president is so fixated on getting rid of birthright citizenship that he went all the way up to the Supreme Court to do so. We were talking in our -- in our show meeting this morning, and one of our producers, Melissa, said, if you're a Solicitor General and you're arguing this case.

This particular birth in the United States would have been a perfect way to argue why birthright citizenship maybe -- shouldn't be allowed in all cases. They lost, by the way, Supreme Court did not decide with Trump. And this is the individual, because he is so good that the president is fighting to play on the field for the U.S. because he was accidentally born in the U.S.

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP: It's pretty poetic in the timing here. It was the day before that that court ruling came out that this game then happened. And we saw, you know, the president made a lot of comments about that ruling, condemning it, saying that he still wants Congress to somehow do something, suggesting somehow you wouldn't need a constitutional amendment, which you would to change this because the ruling was based on the 14th Amendment.

But then the president making this extraordinary move, this phone call to his personal friend, who created this special peace prize for him. You did not see any sort of reflection on what this meant and why this player chose to play for America, and what that meant about America. And it could have been this moment of real glory for America, and now it's just been tainted by this, and then you have this ugly kind of backdrop to it from what happened with the Supreme Court ruling, that you know, it's just -- it's a moment that there's not enough reflection going on right now.

[12:10:00]

BASH: Listen, you called it poetic, I think this is exhibit number 700 that irony is just dead right now in our culture and on our politics. FIFA's President Gianni Infantino just issued a statement, and here's what he said, in part, quote, yes, I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the president of the United States. And on this matter, I did receive a call from President Trump, just as I received calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders, and business executives from around the world or many -- on many different issues.

During our conversation, I explained there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies, and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. Again, this is, I'm reading from a statement from Infantino. He said, this is how FIFA system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: What we see here, I think, actually beyond irony or poetry, is Donald Trump wanting the rules to apply when they're convenient to him and wanting other rules to apply when they're not convenient. If he had his way with that executive order on birthright citizenship, this player would not have been eligible for the team.

BASH: Correct.

DOVERE: And now he wants -- so he wanted that to be the case. And then now he sees something that upsets some people about the red card being all, and he wants the guy to be eligible to play in the round of 16 game tonight. It is just a clear, because of the timing lining up, but it is a clear example of how he functions on this, and just -- he may have done a good analysis of the foul.

I don't think that he was -- he could have gone through maybe what happened in last night's game between England and Mexico, and the red card there and all that. He cares about it because he wants to show that he has this. And look, what the leader of a country called the head of the organization and that led to the call being reversed. That's not what Infantino said, the process actually is.

BASH: Yeah. Can we quickly just listen to Balogun, just going back to the fact that he was only -- he was born in the U.S. and only lived in the U.S. for two months because his mother was here on vacation about his decision to play for the U.S. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOLARIN BALOGUN, U.S. SOCCER TEAM: We came together with my family, and we decided it would be the right thing for me, the country I was born in. So, I mean, in the end, it became a no-brainer, but for sure, it's just something that I wanted to do, and it feels -- it feels like I'm at home here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: I think, we all -- there's so much to unpack, but I think we should not ignore the fact that the nation is at war. Another top ally is at war with Russia, gas prices are up, grocery prices are up, and our president is focused on a football game.

BASH: All right. When we come back, the Michigan Senate Democratic primary is officially down to two candidates, and it will be the biggest test yet this primary season of the party's heated ideological fight. And then President Trump rings the opening bell to celebrate the official launch of Trump Accounts for kids. We'll tell you what you need to know about how yours could benefit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALLORY MCMORROW, (D) FORMER MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I haven't been shy about calling for new leadership and a better Democratic Party. I mean it. The energy is there. People are crying out for change, and we owe it to them to listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That announcement from state Senator Mallory McMorrow, ending her campaign, made the Michigan Democratic primary officially a two- way race. And you really couldn't find a better contest to illustrate the intense fights playing out inside the Democratic Party right now. Still remaining are Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who pitches herself as a bipartisan problem solver. She has the private backing of Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.

And then there's Abdul El-Sayed, a former Detroit area health commissioner who's forged a political identity, among other things, embracing Medicare for all. He's backed by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The winner of the August 4, primary will take on Republican congressman -- former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, who very narrowly lost a Senate race against Elissa Slotkin. Only two years ago, it was less than 20,000 boy votes, or 0.3 percentage points.

My panel is back now. What's your take on -- first let's just go forward. What we're going to see now.

DOVERE: We've got about a month now until this primary. It's august 4, and it's narrowed. It's a binary choice now for Democrats, and they're going to have to think about all these ideological differences that are between Stevens and El-Sayed. All these posture differences between them. And also questions about electability, which are very much in play here. It's a weird primary, since it's in the middle of the summer. We don't -- the electorate in these Michigan primaries is always sort of up for grabs and figuring out what it is.

[12:20:00]

But if voters are thinking about who's going to be the strong candidate going up against Mike Rogers, which a lot of voters seem to be doing these days, thinking in those terms in statewide races. Then it becomes a question of, do they think that that's a person who is seen as more moderate and has this bipartisan pitch, or do they see it as someone who is doing better in firing up the base and things like that? Look, there are all these other issues that even beyond what you mentioned. There's the way that Israel is playing into this race.

BASH: Let me actually just put up on the screen some of them. I'm glad you brought that up. The big policy differences between these two Democratic candidates in Michigan, Haley Stevens. Healthcare, she wants a healthcare public option, accepts corporate money, supports providing Israel aid, does not call Gaza the Gaza war a genocide, and she is aligned with Chuck Schumer.

Abdul El-Sayed on healthcare supports Medicare for all, as I mentioned, disavows corporate money. He says, opposes providing aid to Israel, accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, and is endorsed by Sanders and AOC. And just on the Israel thing, I do want to listen to a little bit of the argument that each has made, starting with El-Sayed with our colleague Kasie Hunt last week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED, (D) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Now, the question about a right to exist, it's interesting because nobody's ever asked me whether or not I believe Palestine has a right to exist. Every single president who served has said that they believe in a two-state solution. Israel exists.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: You say it exists, but does it have a right too?

EL-SAYED: Not didn't say that. I just said the question of Israel's existence is not a question.

REP. HALEY STEVENS (D-MI): He cannot qualify Israel's right to exist. And look, Benjamin Netanyahu has made us less safe. He has frankly put Jews in an uncomfortable position across this country and the world, and I'm going to stand up to him as a senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: Look, this is, as you said in your intro, the Democratic Party war playing out in this race in a super important race. It is very hard to see how Democrats would take the majority in the Senate if they lose control of the seats, democratically held right now. It is very hard to see how Republicans would contain -- would hold control, although maybe they could if they lose this race. There's a lot going on here, there's a lot on the line.

BASH: And when it comes to money, Tia, so far, the ad spending for these two candidates, the remaining candidates, the outside spending, pro El-Sayed spending is $3 million, not a lot. Pro Haley Stevens is a lot, $34 million. One of the things that I'm going to be looking at, and I think all of us will be, is whether or not this outside group, American Priorities PAC, which is forming to be an anti-APAC PAC will go in and spend money on El-Sayed. And if so, if El-Sayed is going to remain opposed to what he calls dark money.

MITCHELL: Yeah. And I mean, you know, there's notwithstanding the recent Supreme Court ruling, you know, he can kind of say, I have no control over these third-party groups that aren't coordinating with my campaign. But I think, you know, we know money does mean something, but money is not everything, and messaging that when you put up that side by side.

I was looking at El-Sayed, and I said, there are a lot of Democrats who are going to read that list and say, I agree with the guy. I don't think what he's saying is so far left, so controversial. It's not a communist speaking, it's a populist speaking. And I think that's what we're seeing voters responding to.

Yes, there are some voters who are going to be worried about his electability, worried about the match up in a general election, but I think again we know that he has -- he knows how to connect with voters. He's been doing it prior to the current election cycle, so there's familiarity in Michigan with him and his message. And we know voters are responding.

BASH: We're going to sneak in a quick break. Up next, baby's first investment. The president is rolling out $1,000 Trump Accounts today. We'll explain who's eligible and how they work.

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[12:25:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: When the markets open in just a few minutes, oh, Trump Accounts will benefit. So, ring the bell. Mr. President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Puts his whole body and his face into that. He is really not messing around. President Trump, as you saw there, became the first sitting president to ring the bell for both the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange this morning. And the reason is the launch of so- called Trump Accounts, investment accounts for children that will be put into a -- it would really be seed money for the government, and it will be allowed to be $1,000 put in from Uncle Sam.

Our very own expert on all things Wall Street, Dave Goldman, is here to help us understand these accounts. First, Dave, explain how they work and who is potentially allowed to invest.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Dana, when the free money machine is open and they're giving out $1,000, I think a lot of people want to know, how do I get that? So, if you have a child that was born in 2025 or beyond, then you can get this Trump Account, as long as you're a U.S. citizen and you have a valid social security number for your kid. And actually, if you apply for a social security number, you can now apply for a Trump Account at the same time with the same form.

So, what are the rules? How do you get this? Well, you can contribute $5,000 a year