The United States is co-hosting the 2025 Men’s World Cup soccer championship,, beginning next month, along with Canada and Mexico.

I’m not a soccer fan. I don’t care what the world thinks and I don’t care how funny “Ted Lasso” is. It’s a boring sport. My father categorized a sport he didn’t like as an “eye test.” That works for me.

There was one thing I did like about the World Cup being in the United States —  was that a world of people with a low threshold of excitement were going to fly to New York, Los Angeles and Boston – among other places. They were going to spend money in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, buy tchotchkes from people on street corners, maybe go to the theater or see live music. 

It was going to be great getting easily entertained people to part with their euros, pesos, yen, won or whatever.

Not any more.

Americans somehow chose Donald Trump as president. The rest of the world didn’t. And as much as they enjoy seeing guys wearing their nations’ colors running around kicking a ball and occasionally putting it in a net, the people of the world aren’t looking for the hassle the Trump troupe seems hellbent on inflicting.

This was expressed most clearly last week by the dolt who is vice president, J.D. Vance. 

“Of course everyone is welcome to come and see this wonderful event,” Vance said. “We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games.”

There’s always a but with these people.

“But when the time is up we want them to go home,” he added, warning them not to overstay their visas.

Successful tourism makes you feel welcome. My family went to London last summer and I felt welcomed and appreciated by everyone I encountered. Their patience with a dense old American was exemplary.

Contrast that with what we’re telling people coming to this country in 2025. Sure you can show up for your sports event, but then get the hell out of here.

As if anything we’re doing is encouraging people to stay.

The fact is that the U.S. was poised to benefit from a strengthening world economy. New York City, perhaps the No. 1 destination for international tourists, was expecting a surge in visitors – an especially welcome development for a city whose theater industry generates significant revenue.

Now, forget it. The wacko rhetoric of Trump and his henchmen. The videos of people suspected – not convicted, mind you – of being in this country without documentation being ambushed by ICE and police collaborators. 

That’s not what people traveling want. They can watch the World Cup from a pub in their home country and not worry about abduction, harassment or just plain stupidity.

It’s a shame. We have a fantastic country that we should share with the world. We have spectacular national parks, theme parks that are the envy of all, magnificent art and architecture.

None of this is of value to Trump or the rest of the Republican idiots. They think what makes America great is a perverted value of strength.’

In the process, American tourism will lose billions of dollars from people who are too afraid or too angry to put up with the nonsense we’ve been dealing with since January 20.

Trump will revel in the World Cup when it begins on June 11. He’ll show up at some stadium, probably one in a place where he’s not wildly unpopular – Dallas or Miami. And he’ll sit in some luxury box and wave majestically before he leaves at the 45-minute intermission.

We’ll have to deal with this crap again in 2028, when the Olympics come to Los Angeles. Unless the situation in this country is so bad that it would be a colossal mistake to hold the games here.

For some reason, that doesn’t seem so far-fetched.