The American president Donald Trump greeted the Kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, and the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the VIP box of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, during the 2026 World Cup final between Spain and Argentina.
The images from the meeting, captured by the agency EFE, showed the leaders behind a bulletproof glass in the official stand, while a crowd of fans raised their phones to photograph the moment from outside the box.
The greeting was described by Spanish media as "the most anticipated photo" of the final, given the tense diplomatic context that preceded the meeting between Washington and Madrid.
Tensions between the two countries had escalated since Spain refused to cede the military bases of Rota and Morón for Operation Epic Fury—the U.S. and Israeli offensive against Iran launched in February 2026—and closed its airspace to U.S. military aircraft.
The peak moment came on July 8, during the NATO summit in Ankara, when Trump labeled Spain as a "lost cause" and ordered the cessation of bilateral trade. "Spain is a terrible ally in NATO. They don't participate, they don't pay, I want nothing to do with Spain," warned the leader.
However, just days later, Sánchez declared that he had had an informal conversation with Trump in Ankara about the World Cup, assuring that there were "kind words and courtesy" and that "there was no tension whatsoever."
The handshake in the MetLife suite was thus laden with diplomatic symbolism, set against the backdrop of the World Cup final.
Alongside Trump and the Spanish delegation, the stands brought together the First Lady Melania Trump; the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum; the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney; the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino; and the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani.
The Spanish royal family attended in full: in addition to Felipe VI and Letizia, the princess Leonor and infanta Sofía were present, who had already celebrated Spain's advancement to the final.
A notable absence was that of the Argentine president Javier Milei, who chose to follow the match from Buenos Aires for reasons of "superstition," despite his team playing in the final.
Trump served as the main political host of the tournament and presented the trophy to the winning team alongside Infantino, who had told him days earlier at a reception in Trump Tower that the World Cup "would not have been such an incredible success without you."
It was Spain's second World Cup final — the first was in 2010 when they became champions — and Argentina's sixth, reigning champions since 2022, in what Trump had described as a difficult match to predict.
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