US President Donald Trump has promised that he will redeploy the National Guard to five American cities just months before the World Cup is set to begin.
There is now just four months to go until the 2026 World Cup kicks off as Mexico host South Africa in opening fixture on June 11.
Mexico will co-host the major tournament, with matches held across three cities, while co-hosts Canada and the USA will host games across two and 11 cities respectively.
Ahead of the tournament beginning, there has been various concerns about the United States being one of the hosts given the current political climate in the country and recent actions of President Trump.
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And now, amid rising tensions regarding the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Trump has made an ominous promise regarding the law enforcement agency.
Last summer, Trump made headlines as he decided to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles following clashes between protestors and federal law enforcement agents.
The decision was met with major backlash from Trump's critics, with many saying that the president is too quick to use the National Guard and ICE for what they perceive to be his benefit.
But the US President defended the decision on Wednesday evening, claiming that he 'saved' Los Angeles and that doing so ensured they would be able to host the Olympic Games in 2028.
“I saved Los Angeles,” Trump told Tom Llamas on NBC Nightly News.
“If I didn’t go in there with the National Guard, with troops, you wouldn’t have the Olympics — which I got, I got the Olympics — in Los Angeles.”
Praising the work of the National Guard and ICE, Trump then reiterated that he would be more than willing to redeploy both forced ahead of the World Cup this summer of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if needed.
In doing so, he confirmed that there are five US cities that he is currently looking at sending forced to, but refused to clarify which cities he was speaking about.
He continued: “We will do it again if we have to. And, by the way, we’re going to have a very safe Olympics and a very safe World Cup.
“We have five cities that we’re looking at very strongly,” he noted. “But we want to be invited. We will sometimes call the governors.
“We’ll be announcing them very quickly."
Trump's comments come amid calls for the US to be stripped of hosting the World Cup given the president's recent actions, particularly the continued calls for the autonomous territory of Greenland to be handed over to the US for what he described as security purposes.
In January, a group of 23 UK MPs signed a motion calling on international sporting bodies to consider expelling the US from major competitions, including the World Cup.
Meanwhile others have called on their national team to boycott the tournament to show their disapproval of Trump's actions.
Topics: Donald Trump, FIFA, FIFA World Cup, Football World Cup
Ben McCrum