U.S. Soccer president explains how Trump's executive order could impact 2026 World Cup bid

Sunil Gulati believes President Trump's immigration and travel ban is not consistent with American values but doesn't close the door on a World Cup.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati doesn't agree with President Donald Trump's temporary travel and immigration ban, but he says it's "too early" to tell if it will have any affect on the United States' bid to host the World Cup in 2026.

Many U.S. national team players, including captain Michael Bradley, have spoken out against the executive order, while defender Geoff Cameron issued his support of the order that is designed to restrict travel and immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Gulati spoke with the Planet Futbol Podcast on Tuesday, saying "I don't think the executive order that has been issued is consistent with a lot of American values."

“There’s two images when you think about New York that maybe come into play for people here, and they’re both downtown around New York harbor," he said. "One is the memorial from 9/11, which still is in a lot of people’s minds and raises security concerns where it’s not a question of whether they’re rational or less rational, but those are concerns for people. So security is obviously something that’s very important to us.

"Obviously, the other major image is that poem on the Statue of Liberty. I think while there’s always a balance between those things, everything America stands for in terms of openness, in terms of being welcoming, is challenged by such an executive order. It’s going to be challenged and has been challenged successfully already in courts.

And my guess is you’re going to see modifications in that. So it doesn’t represent what I believe is the best of us. My guess is some years from now a lot of people will look back at this and say we shouldn’t have done that.”