{"id":363710,"date":"2026-06-17T02:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363710\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T02:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:38:11","slug":"world-cup-2026-security-andrew-giuliani-on-trumps-possible-attendance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363710\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026 security: Andrew Giuliani on Trump’s possible attendance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Giuliani was in town on Saturday to manage security for the 2026 World Cup<\/a> at the behest of President Donald Trump<\/a>. During his visit, he took time to share his thoughts on the games and the president\u2019s possible attendance at Levi\u2019s Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Giuliani, a conservative political commentator and son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is the executive director of the White House Task Force FIFA World Cup 2026<\/a>, a role that President Trump appointed him to in May<\/a>. The task force has the duty of making sure that local and state law enforcement coordinate well with federal agencies involved in monitoring the competition, such as the FBI, NSA and ICE.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have continually worked through this process 24\/7 throughout the duration of the World Cup, and I think it\u2019s going to be an unbelievable opportunity to show off American exceptionalism to the rest of the world,\u201d Giuliani said.<\/p>\n

The vast size of the World Cup is perhaps the biggest challenge of this job<\/a>, he said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about 78 matches over 11 American host cities, three cities in Mexico and two in Canada. The way that we\u2019ve set it up, it\u2019s like 78 Super Bowls from a security perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the measures put in effect at the Santa Clara stadium and those in other cities are new protections against drone incursions. For the first time ever, all 78 of the World Cup\u2019s matches will be protected with counter-UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) mitigation equipment, and there are now higher fines in place against flying drones near sports stadiums.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Giuliani poses on the red carpet prior to the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images archives)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ll tell you is that, especially in this field, as I\u2019m sure people can imagine, the tech is moving so fast on this. The half-life is probably six weeks to three months at this point,\u201d Giuliani said. \u201cSo when you think about how the government generally moves at a slower pace, it\u2019s been amazing to see just how fast we\u2019ve been able to go. And I think, frankly, that\u2019s because of the mandate and the leadership of the 47th president of the United States on this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the Coast Guard in particular is covering the (Santa Clara) stadium with counter-UAS,\u201d he added, \u201cso kudos to the United States Coast Guard and the work that they\u2019ve done here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agents with ICE are also in the Bay Area to monitor the World Cup, particularly those with the division of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). \u201cWithout them and without their expertise, it would be difficult to secure the sites from all the potential threat actors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Trump so far has not attended any World Cup matches, including the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u2019s opener against Paraguay in Los Angeles on June 12. It is \u201chighly unusual\u201d for a head of state to miss out on these openers, according to The New York Times<\/a>. But Giuliani said don\u2019t be surprised if Trump drops in on future games, which run until July 19.<\/p>\n

\"QatarQatar fans cheer after they tied the game against Switzerland in the second half of their match at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known President Trump for 30 years, and all I can tell you is he likes a cliffhanger. \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t rule anything out in terms of what President Trump would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giuliani signed off by noting that he\u2019s sought advice on World Cup security from no less an authority figure than his own father.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he was mayor the first year the World Cup came to New York and New Jersey [in 1994]. It\u2019s been interesting going back and seeing the differences in the security setup pre-9\/11 versus post-9\/11, and how much the tournament has grown and the threat picture has changed since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m so proud of him,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you, about a month and a half back, he was unconscious, and we weren\u2019t sure if he was going to make it. \u2026 When he pulled out of it, he took a couple of minutes and gained his breath, looked at me and said, \u2018What the hell are you doing here? You got to get to D.C.,\u2019 because he knew there were about 40 days until the World Cup kicked off. And that was great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Giuliani was in town on Saturday to manage security for the 2026 World Cup at the behest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-363710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}