Letters from an American - A Thumb on the Scale

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

July 6, 2026In the World Cup match between the US and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the US team’s top scorer received a red card, Last Sunday, FIFA announced Balogun would be allowed to play, Trump had called FIFA’s president to intervene, There has been outrage over this interference but Trump isn’t interested in a level playing field, The episode represents the way Trump thinks about the rule of law in the US, Trump and the Republicans have skewed the US economy in favor of their supporters, History shows what happens when a few wealthy men control the government, Theodore Roosevelt demanded a square deal for the American people, Trump claims those calling for government to keep the economic playing field level are “communists,” Trump is looking to put his thumb on the scale of the midterm elections and is demanding that Congress pass his SAVE America Act, which they might just find a way to do.Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

July 6, 26. Last week, U.S. men's national soccer team forward, Filarin Belogun, the team's top scorer, received a red card in a World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, suspending him for today's game against Belgium. Then, on Sunday, the disciplinary committee of the International Soccer governing body, FIFA, made a surprise announcement,

saying that Belogoon would be allowed a year-long probation, enabling him to play on Monday. Almost immediately, Sophia Kai of Politico reported that White House FIFA World Cup Task Force, executive director Andrew Giuliani, the son of Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, told President Donald J. Trump about the suspension. As officials from the U.S. Soccer Federation prepare, and submitted an appeal to FIFA, Giuliani and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik

offered White House lawyers and dug into the professional history of the referee who had made the red card call. Then, on Thursday, Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino, with whom he has been friendly for eight years. On Sunday, FIFA cleared Belogun to play on Monday. The last and only,

time a red card went unpunished before was in 1962. The suspension of the suspension has created an international outcry, although, as the Associated Press pointed out, this is only the latest step in a pattern in which Infantino appears to have been interfering with the independence of FIFA's judicial and disciplinary bodies. The Belgian Soccer Federation is challenging the ruling. Regardless of the sporting outcome of the match, it said, it was deeply concerned by the way these events have unfolded and will continue in the hours, days, and months ahead to pursue every available avenue to uphold the fundamental principles of ethics, sporting fairness, and the interests of football as a whole. The Union of European Football Associations, or UEFA, has called the decision

incomprehensible and unjustifiable. When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake, and the credibility of a competition is undermined, it said. Football is the most love sport in the world because it is a beautiful game, and is trusted because it is played everywhere with the same laws. But a world in which playing fields are level

is not the world Trump wants. He wants one in which people in power can ignore the rule of law for their own ends. Today, at the White House, he told reporters, So I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports and was a good athlete, and I understand sports really well, really well. And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. No, these were two great athletes that got tangled up, and this referee who is a little bit suspect if you check his past. Belogun didn't do anything wrong, and he's our best player, or one of our best players, a very vital player, and he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game,

at least in the next game. I said, boy, that's a big, you know, if it had happened to another player, it would have been unfair. But when they take your best player or just about, they have some great players, and they say you can't play, that's very unfair. That's, you know, that's one thing to penalize somebody for the game. But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? It's very unfair. You can't do that. So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who's highly respected, and by the way whose level of respect has gone up tenfold. and he was good before this started. But, you know, he really pushed it in this country.

And then Trump was back to his usual grievances. I'm the one that got them to do it. It was not Biden. Biden was asleep. I got him to do it. In fact, it was very sad because I got him to do it. And if the progression was normal, I would have been retired. Now the Democrats are saying,

man, we should have just let him have his way. He would have. We would have had him gone. But I said, you know, the saddest thing is, I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup. The president of the United States, pressuring the president of FIFA to change the rules for his favorite player, perfectly represents the way Trump thinks about the rule of law in the United States.

And the rejection of a level playing field shows in the way Trump and the Republicans have skewed the U.S. economy so only their team can win. Almost exactly a year ago, on July 4th, 2025, Trump signed into law what he called the one big beautiful bill. It passed both the House and the Senate without a single Democratic vote, making it a signature piece of legislation for Trump and his party. As Shannon Petty piece and Mike Hicksenbaugh of NBC News reported on July 1st, there was a seismic shift at the heart of the new law.

It extended about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to corporations and well-eastern, Americans over 10 years, while cutting about $1.1 trillion from health care and food assistance programs that serve poor and working class Americans. It also adds about $4.7 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. Public policy scholar Chris Howard noted that the law so dramatically rolls back the modern government constructed during and after the Depression in World War II from 1933 to 1981, that it amounts to Robin Hood in reverse. It deliberately targets some of the most vulnerable members of society, he told Petty Peace in Hicks and Boe, while providing huge windfalls to the richest individuals and to big business. After the economic free-for-all of the 1920s led to the

great crash and the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats began the process of creating a modern state that established a level economic playing field. They created a government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, protected civil rights, and supported a rules-based international order. Then, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower built on the foundation the Democrats built. Members of both parties supported such a system, recognizing that without a level economic playing field that made sure everyone had the ability to succeed, a few men would monopolize the nation's wealth and power. Their inspiration for creating a government that kept the

economic playing field level came from those before them who had seen what happened when a few wealthy men controlled the government. In the early 20th century, when corporations dominated the economy and their millionaire owners threw their weight into political contests, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt fulminated against that small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. He insisted that America must break up this class in order to return to an economic system under which each man

shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him. He called for government to regulate business, prohibit corporate funding of political campaigns, and impose income and inheritance taxes. He demanded a square deal for the American people. In late 1901, financier J.P. Morgan joined the nation's main railroad interests into a giant new conglomerate designed to get around antitrust, legislation. In February 1902, Roosevelt's Attorney General told reporters that the formation of the

Northern Securities Company was illegal and that he would be suing it. Businessmen were aghast, not only because Roosevelt was going after a business combination, but also because he had acted without consulting Wall Street. When J.P. Morgan complained that he had not been informed, Roosevelt told him that that was the whole point. Well, if we have done anything wrong, said the astonished Morgan, send your man, the attorney general, to my man, one of his lawyers, and they can fix it up. The president declined. We don't want to fix it up, explained the attorney general.

We want to stop it. As the Boston Globe put it, justice for all alike, a square deal for every man, great or small, rich or poor, is the Roosevelt ideal to be attained by the framing and the administration of the law. And he would tell you that that means Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller, as well as the poor fellow who cannot pay his rent. And yet, in 2026, Trump has taken to saying that those Americans calling for the government to maintain the rule of law to make sure the economic playing field is level, rather than working for corporations on the wealthy,

are communists. So he is looking to put a thumb on the scale of the mid-term elections, as he did in the FIFA match and the economy. Trump is demanding that Congress passed the so-called Save America Act, a massive voter suppression bill. Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson,

a Republican of Louisiana, told the Fox News Channel that he will try to get Congress to pass the measure by using the budget reconciliation process. Since such a process cannot be filibustered, Republicans might be able to pass it, despite Democratic opposition. Trump has repeatedly insisted that if the Republicans pass the measure, they won't lose another election for 100 years. The game tonight's going to be amazing, Trump said today about tonight's match.

We're going to have a full team and Belgium is going to have a full team. And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be. really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we'll say it was, I say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020. Tonight, Belgium defeated the USA 4-1 in the World Cup match played in Seattle. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts, recorded with music and pose. by Michael Moss.