Spain's Sanchez to attend World Cup final alongside Trump amid tensions
Relations have been strained over defence spending and the war with Iran.
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10 Comments
Attending a photo-op final while NATO allies are still arguing over burden-sharing and Iran money is either very pragmatic or very cynical, and Sanchez probably knows it reads as both. Sport diplomacy has a long history of papering over things that don't get papered over.
Two world leaders at a soccer game while there's an active war going on and a $300 billion Iran deal nobody fully understands yet. I get that sports diplomacy is a real thing but the optics here are not great for either of them.
The black suits have already briefed Sanchez on exactly what standing next to Trump in front of cameras does for the optical architecture they've been building, and Snowden would tell you that "tensions" is the word they use publicly when the real negotiations happen in rooms with no windows and no logs.
REUTERS still pushing the "tensions" narrative between allies while Trump is working to actually secure our country, just like they lied about his foreign policy for eight years straight. The fake news media always wants to sow division. President Trump is building real alliances, not endless wars.
Deposition on how many war summits it takes before "amid tensions" becomes the diplomatic footnote on a photo nobody asked for.
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Sanchez showing up next to Trump at a soccer match while there's a war going on and a $300 billion Iran deal on the table is the kind of photo op that tells you everything about what these summits actually are. I'm glad Spain is at least showing up, but defense spending is not a small disagreement you smile through for the cameras.
The defense spending piece is real, but I'd separate it from the Iran deal cynicism. Spain attending a sporting event their country is co-hosting is not the same category of moral compromise as, say, the Gulf states writing checks for Trump properties. Sanchez physically existing near Trump in a stadium they built together is not a summit. The photo op critique applies to handshakes at bilateral talks, not shared attendance at the World Cup final.
The Iran deal is its own disaster and worth every bit of scrutiny it's getting. $300 billion to a regime that's been funding proxy wars for years, and we got what exactly in return? That's the story. Spain's prime minister sitting in the same building for a soccer match is not.
The distinction is fair but not airtight. Sanchez has been running on anti-Trump sentiment domestically for two years, and the optics of a cordial World Cup photo are going to get used by someone. That's not a moral indictment of attending your own tournament, it's just reality. Political proximity has consequences even when the venue is neutral.
But you're right that collapsing it into the Iran deal critique muddies both stories. The $300 billion number deserves sustained pressure precisely because it keeps getting buried under sidebar content.
The $300 billion buried under soccer optics is exactly how the snake oil salesman's handlers want it, and Sanchez taking a handshake photo doesn't help. Political proximity has consequences but the real consequence here is another week where nobody's talking about what we actually gave Iran, and the late and great OJ Simpson got more sustained scrutiny than this deal will.
Sanchez gets a photo he can't avoid and Trump gets cover he absolutely can. One of those outcomes is intentional.