The White House has waded into the Falklands row – but Iran is Trump’s real test

The White House has thrown its weight behind Argentina’s football team after its political stunt at the World Cup. After beating England 2-1 in the semi-finals, the players held up a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (The Falklands are Argentine). In 1982, Argentina and the UK went to war over the British overseas territory located in the south-west Atlantic, 300 miles off Argentina’s east coast. In 2013, the islands’ residents overwhelmingly voted to remain British, but tensions have persisted, with current President Javier Milei saying he would set out a “roadmap” to reclaim the islands. Shorts Fifa bans political messaging at matches and has issued penalties in the past for violations. But Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House Fifa task force, said on Friday the team had the opportunity and ability to “make those statements” under the First Amendment in the US. It is not the first time the Trump administration has weighed in on this year’s World Cup tournament. Trump personally lobbied Fifa boss Gianni Infantino to overturn a one-match ban against the US’s Folarin Balogun after he was handed a red card, in a move which the European Union of Football Associations called “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.” This week, Trump appeared at a joint press conference with Infantino, praising the overturning of his ban as one of “Gianni’s many good decisions” and even questioning the tactics Thomas Tuchel used to deploy Harry Kane against Argentina. But while the White House dominates the airwaves over the World Cup, it faces much more serious problems elsewhere. Argentina’s Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso celebrate with the controversial banner after the match as Argentina qualify for the World Cup final (Photo: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters) As the tournament reaches its climax, the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran has broken down, with seven consecutive nights of fighting. The US has launched strikes across Iran, while Tehran orders attacks on US military bases in neighbouring Gulf states. The violence centres around the Strait of Hormuz, a key international shipping lane through which around 20 per cent of the world’s oil and natural gas usually transits. Iran has effectively closed the Strait, stalling shipping and spiking fuel prices worldwide. And while the White House might be turning attention to the World Cup, polls indicate the US public is alarmed by the impact of the Iran war at home. A Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out early last month put Trump’s approval rating at 35 per cent – at a near-record low. Fewer still – 29 per cent – approve of the way he is handling Iran, and just 22 per cent think he is managing the cost of living positively. Just a quarter of Americans say the war in Iran has been worth it, while 53 per cent say it hasn’t. Iranians hold a banner reading ‘Kill Trump’ as they pay their respects to the late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran (Photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty) These polls will no doubt be alarming for a White House gearing up to fight the midterm elections in November. Trump has already begun to cast doubt on the electoral process, blaming China for 2020 election meddling and alleged “shocking vulnerabilities” in American voting systems. At the same time, another of Trump’s international efforts is unravelling. Despite the US brokering a ceasefire in October, Israeli bombs are continuing to fall in Lebanon and Gaza, while Israel’s defence and finance ministers this week announced plans for three illegal settlements in Gaza and more than £300m to expand construction in the occupied West Bank. While the World Cup might temporarily focus attention, these international crises continue to simmer – and will refuse to be ignored for long. As long as the Iran War continues to inflate petrol prices for US voters, no amount of sports pageantry will distract from the issues which affect voters most.