Trump’s World Cup Mess and Kushner’s Albania Deal

**Alastair Campbell** (0:00)
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There's a lot of worry about the trumpification of this World Cup. A quarter of the 48 countries taking part are currently facing either travel bans, tight restrictions or high visa rejection rates. For the first time ever, Omar Artan, who's a referee from Somalia, he arrives at the airport and he's refused entry.

**Rory Stewart** (0:33)
And I noticed your great friend Gianni Anfantino, the head of FIFA, didn't use his amazing relationship with Donald Trump to get the Somalian.

**Alastair Campbell** (0:42)
There's Anfantino saying he doesn't get involved in day-to-day politics and stuff. This is the guy who gave Donald Trump the FIFA Peace Prize. The World Cup is the biggest sports event in the world. But I think this one is going to be horribly political.
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**Rory Stewart** (3:46)
Welcome to The Rest Is Politics, Question Time with me, Rory Stewart.

**Alastair Campbell** (3:50)
And me, Alastair Campbell. Rory, we're going to talk about the World Cup.

**Rory Stewart** (3:54)
Yay!

**Alastair Campbell** (3:55)
Starts Thursdays. It's going to go on for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. We're going to talk about the midterms in the US. We're going to talk about corruption in America. You want to talk about, I know, about Millet, and the really interesting development in relation to AI. And we're going to talk about the election in Armenia. And I think my favorite question of the week, Rory, had me thinking a lot, is whether we would, if we had another life, whether we'd do politics.
So, World Cup, World Cup. I know you're very, very, very excited about this. The question that we have on the World Cup is from Sunny in Lincolnshire. Is this the most political World Cup of all time? As a World Cup historian, Rory, do you think it's the most political World Cup of all time?

**Rory Stewart** (4:40)
I know what historians do because I've been watching Dominic Sandbrook on our sister show very carefully. What happens is you stroke your chin and you say, no, actually, there was a World Cup in 1970, whatever, which did this, that, and the other.