Trump announces major news for fans attending the World Cup... and threatens to take games from Seattle

Donald Trump has announced that soccer fans hoping to attend the World Cup next year will be able to benefit from prioritized visa appointments for travel to the U.S.

At the White House on Monday, Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced their new Priority Appointment Scheduling System (PASS) for ticket holders attending matches at next year's tournament.

The service will enable every fan who buys a ticket the opportunity to jump the queue and get a prioritized visa interview.

Infantino said: 'America welcomes the World. We have always said that this will be the greatest and most inclusive FIFA World Cup in history – and the FIFA PASS service is a very concrete example of that.'

Over six million tickets are available for games across the 16 host cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Trump later threatened to move World Cup games out of Seattle, where democratic socialist Katie Wilson was recently elected mayor, if the city's crime rate doesn't improve.

Back in September, Trump said he is going to make sure San Francisco and Seattle are 'safe' to stage matches in the US next year - adding that the cities are 'run by radical left lunatics who don't know what they're doing'.

He added: 'If any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup… because they're playing in so many cities, we won't allow it.

'We'll move it around a little bit. But I hope that's not going to happen.'

Seattle's Lumen Field is set to host six fixtures at next summer's tournament, with Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara – which is an hour away from San Francisco – due to put on the same amount. 

Last week, Wilson became the first democratic socialist mayor of Seattle, echoing the recent victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who handily won the general election in New York City by nine points.

Like Mamdani, Wilson has run on a campaign characterized by promises to increase affordability in the expensive city. Another core part of her platform is addressing Seattle's homelessness crisis, which is one of the worst in the country. 

But critics have called Wilson privileged and out of touch, as the 43-year-old candidate regularly receives checks from her professor parents to pay for childcare. 

The democratic socialist has acknowledged her privileged upbringing, and said she became aware of it while attending public schools, where she had friends without the same means. 

She told KUOW that when she moved to Seattle in 2004, she cut herself off from her parents' money and 'worked a bunch of working-class jobs,' which she said: 'Psychologically, it really did something to me.'

More to follow...