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EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is claiming victory over the left after a successful FIFA World Cup tournament that saw record-shattering numbers of fans moving through the U.S.
Several million FIFA fans flocked to American stadiums this year, putting an enormous strain on federal, state and local transportation networks. However, aided in part by a more than a $100 million DOT infrastructure investment to World Cup host cities, the tournament went off without any major incidents, prompting Duffy to taunt doomsayers who predicted the country would fall on its face.
“The Left was praying for an American transit disaster as we hosted the most important international sporting event in modern history,” Duffy told Fox News Digital.
“They were wrong, and President Trump was right.”
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Among the naysayers was Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who in April accused the Trump administration of endangering FIFA fans by “systematically dismantling security agencies, delaying critical security assistance, and initiating a war with Iran.” All this, Gallego said, made the country’s top security agency, the Department of Homeland Security, “woefully unprepared to accomplish its mission.”
Gallego remarked that “if state and local officials do not trust that federal employees will coordinate in lockstep and operate as partners, they will be unable to protect their communities—increasing threat risk and compromising Americans’ safety in the process.” He added that “this self-imposed chaos extends to the Trump administration’s management of federal departments and agencies.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took a similar tone, asserting ahead of the tournament that “Trump cares more about being on international TV at midfield on match day than actually hosting successful games.”
In May, The Atlantic published a piece titled “Another Way America Will Choke at the World Cup,” in which the author predicted that “in the coming months, America’s patchwork railway system will be similarly challenged—and its weaknesses exposed—across all 11 U.S. sites of World Cup matches.”
Nathaniel Sizemore, a spokesperson for the agency, told Fox News Digital that it was “the Left’s TDS [Trump derangement syndrome]” that “put them in the absurd position of praying for an American transit disaster.”
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However, with the World Cup officially concluded, the results are in and, according to DOT, they are conclusive. The department said that, aided by its $100.3 million in federal funding to host cities, local transit systems accommodated record-breaking numbers.
During the World Cup, Atlanta saw more than 2 million riders use public transit to get to matches, fan fests, and other events, with match-day ridership reaching up to three times the typical average.
In Seattle, DOT said that more than 1.1 million combined riders used city public transit during the first two matches alone. On July 6, the city’s light rail system accommodated 309,000 riders, blowing well past the system’s single-day record of 220,000 riders.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia, which also hosted this year’s MLB All-Star Game, saw an average of 27,000 riders using public transit per match. The city’s PHLASH bus service recorded a 500 percent increase in ridership.
Even cities not previously known for their public transit systems accommodated record numbers. Kansas City saw a one-day record for streetcar riders at 48,260 on June 27. Los Angeles saw a 598 percent increase in rider taps on World Cup match day compared to a typical Friday.
To put it further in perspective, DOT said that in San Francisco, an average of more than 38,000 fans moved to and from World Cup matches using public transit, exceeding Super Bowl LX’s numbers by nearly 8,000.
DOT is not the only one that noticed the U.S. public transit system performing.
At the start of the tournament, Vox ran a piece titled “The World Cup has a Trump problem.” In the piece, the outlet accused Trump of “actively hindering” the World Cup and other sporting events, especially through the president’s “hostility to all immigrants … especially to non-white ones.” Yet, ahead of the final match, Vox wrote that “the nation’s widely expected World Cup public transit meltdown has simply not materialized.”
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The outlet said that “to the surprise of pretty much everyone, US cities have managed to absorb the influx of fans with relative ease, even under the pressure of record ridership en route to stadiums, watch parties, and fan zones.”
Duffy, however, was not surprised.
“Whether they flew, took passenger rail, hopped on public transit, or hit the open road, Americans and visitors alike saw the best of our nation over the last month,” he told Fox News Digital.
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He added that “from the FTA’s investment into local public transit to the FAA’s work keeping our skies safe, we were proud to help FIFA fans get to the games safely and on time.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Gallego, Schumer, The Atlantic and Vox for comment.
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