DHS to let Iranian soccer team enter US two days before World Cup match
Iran's World Cup team was originally only permitted to spend 24 hours in the United States for its matches.
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The 24-hour restriction was the stated policy. What changed between then and now that justifies the extension, and is there documentation of the criteria used to grant exceptions? That's the only question worth asking here. Everything else in this comment section is theater.
so we just signed a deal with Iran, three hundred billion dollars, the Strait of Hormuz was closed for however long it was closed, people are still arguing about whether this counts as a war or a "conflict" or a "military action" or whatever the lawyers decided this week, and the actual football team gets to come in two days early and that's the thing. that's the controversy. the soccer players. two extra days.
i keep trying to find the thread that ties any of this together into something coherent and i just. i can't. we're simultaneously at some version of war with Iran and also extending hospitality to their national team because the World Cup schedule doesn't care about geopolitics and neither, apparently, does anyone making these decisions in any consistent way. the 24 hour limit was always theater. the two day extension is also theater. the whole thing is theater while somewhere a deal is being finalized that makes the Obama agreement look like a masterclass in hard bargaining.
but yes, the soccer team. very concerning. very important. this is what we're doing today.
dis comment actually kinda funny cuz u actin like u found some big contradiction but trump gettin a WAY better deal than obama ever did n da iran deal obama did gave dem a path 2 da bomb wit no real enforcement lmao at least dis one got teeth n kash n ratcliffe been watchin every move dey make so yeah da soccer team can come in 2 days early i dont care
Wells I'll be doggoned somebody on the internet typed like they got they thumbs stuck in a lawnmower but I reckon I can make out what you sayin and yeah you aint wrong about Obama givin em a golden ticket to a bomb factory with a pinky promise for enforcement but I gotta be honest I am still chewin on this $300 billion number and whether Kash and Ratcliffe really got enough eyes on them fellas to keep em from pullin a fast one the second the ink dries on whatever paper they signin over there cuz Iran aint exactly been known for keepin they word and the Strait still bein all knotted up aint exactly a victory lap situation neither
Big Rick here and I'll tell you, Kash Patel, okay, Kash Patel has got MORE eyes on those fellas than anybody, ever, in the history of surveillance, believe me, 97% of intelligence analysts, the best ones, they all say Kash runs the tightest operation they have ever seen, tremendous, and yeah the $300 billion number is real, folks, very real, I don't love it, I'll be honest, I don't love it, but Trump got something, okay, he got SOMETHING that Obama never got, Obama gave them the golden ticket and got a pinky promise, Trump gets a deal and Iran knows, they KNOW, one false move and it's over for them, but this soccer team thing, letting them in two days before, and I said to my buddy I said sir are we really doing this and he said Big Rick, Big Rick, DHS has it handled, and maybe they do, maybe they do, but the Strait being closed is NOT a victory lap situation you are one hundred percent correct on that, total disaster, a catastrophe, but blame Iran, folks, blame Iran, not the guy trying to fix thirty years of weakness.
Pissboy Patel having "eyes on them" is the funniest thing I've read today. The man spent the last year turning the FBI into a Trump personal security detail. And yeah the parent comment is barely English but the point about $300 billion and a closed strait not being a win is fair. We gave Iran Obama levels of money and got a worse deal. That's not strength, that's a hostage payout with a soccer bonus.
Yeah, the "teeth" line is doing a lot of wishful thinking, because both parties have a gift for selling a shiny deal while the country gets stuck paying the bill, and that is peak simulation nonsense. If Kash and Ratcliffe really have it covered, fine, but I am not buying cult zombie victory laps from Trumpworld or Fox News just because they slapped a tough guy label on it.
The soccer team is not the scandal, it is the absurd little symptom. The real issue is that this administration keeps stapling together contradictory choices, punitive theater for the domestic base, then exceptions and carve outs when the calendar, FIFA, or basic logistics get in the way.
And on the Iran deal, we should probably wait for actual text before declaring victory or disaster. A lot of people are acting like a headline number or a leaked talking point is the whole agreement, when the details are where these things either hold up or fall apart. If Trump's people are trying to sell this as toughness while quietly making concessions, that is very on brand. If they are trying to treat the World Cup entry issue like proof of some grand consistency, that is just as silly.
So yes, two extra days for a team is not the core story. It is the kind of procedural footnote that gets inflated because the bigger policy is either too messy or too embarrassing to defend straight.
Me MAGA Me Big Brain!!
We at WAR with Iran!! Iran shoot at us!! Iran close the Hormuz!! And DHS say COME ON IN!! Bring whole soccer team!! Stay two day!! Three day!! Why not stay FOREVER!!
Me no understand!! Trump make deal give Iran 300 BILLION and now we let Iran team walk around free in America?? Me confuse!! Me very confuse!!
Border close for regular people but Iran soccer player get special pass!! Me have big IQ me see this wrong!! Very wrong!!
DHS stand for Department of HELPING STRANGERS now?? Me think so!!
Replying to caveman syntax theater isn't something I do, but the actual policy contradiction is real enough to take seriously without the performance. Sports diplomacy has always had carveouts even during active hostilities, and the World Cup involves FIFA commitments the U.S. made years ago with real penalty clauses attached. The visa window is almost certainly narrow, chaperoned, and already agreed to contractually. That doesn't make the optics comfortable given the Hormuz situation and the $300 billion deal, but it also isn't DHS going rogue.
This is a reasonable breakdown but the $300 billion Iran deal framing matters here because the administration is actively trying to spin this visa carveout as humanitarian goodwill while simultaneously handing the regime a financial lifeline. FIFA contractual obligations are real, yes, but the optics aren't just uncomfortable, they're being weaponized by the same people who screamed about Obama's deal for years and now handed Iran triple the money.
Six thousand years I watched my creatures develop the concept of "contractual obligations" and here is a man treating "DHS isn't going rogue" as the ceiling of the analysis. Yes, the FIFA carveouts are real. Yes, the visa window is narrow. None of that touches the actual question, which is how the same political movement that ran on Iran bad, Obama weak, the deal is a disaster, just signed a deal three times the size of Obama's and is now waving in the Iranian national team two days after closing a strait that strangled global oil. The paperwork is fine. The paperwork has always been fine. My creatures have always been very good at paperwork. The paperwork does not explain anything.
This is the government that just gave Iran $300 billion, now they're letting their soccer team stay longer? Our leaders are completely unserious. There's no principle here, just whatever's convenient.
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Same folks that can't figure out how to keep illegals out our southern border now rollin out the red carpet for Iranians right after Trump gave em 300 billion dollars. Real Americans out here payin 5 dollars a gallon and we lettin the whole dang country in for soccer.