Making Spectacles Of Themselves

There was never a greater embarrassment to America than what happened on Sunday.  A narcissistic, blasphemous, talentless hack from the 1980s who got to the top with self-promotion and deception got on the stage at the World Cup final - which Spain won - and humiliated the United States in a display of egomaniacal self-absorption and did not care who was offended and who was appalled by such atrocious behavior.

And what Donald Trump did was just as bad.

What you thought I was talking about Trump just now?  No, I was talking about Madonna. 

In what was the most unnecessary live "musical" event since Woodstock II out on Long Island in 1979, Madonna headlined a show between the two halves of the final game between Spain and Argentina, where she was joined by BTS, Shakira, and the horrible Justin Bieber.  Madge clearly wanted to be part of a global event - anything to promote her latest LP - and she made it clear to her manager that she wanted to headline the show and wouldn't take no for an answer because it was on her "bucket list."

Oh, yes, I understand how long she'd been waiting for a moment like this . . . like, a whole . . . month!   Because this is the first World Cup final halftime show ever staged in the 96-year history of the tournament.

If a halftime show for the championship game sounds wrong for the World Cup, that's because the championship game halftime show is a uniquely and peculiarly American innovation, starting innocently from marching bands in American Football League and National Football League championships and then the early Super Bowls of the late sixties and early seventies before the NFL (which absorbed the AFL and converted the original leagues into "conferences") chose to start featuring pop singers - the more theatrical the better.  And a lot of soccer fans aren't happy about this attempt to ape the Super Bowl, either.  This was just the icing on a putrid cake that was the 2026 World Cup, in which extra teams were added, ticket prices soared through the roof, and breaks for drinks of water broke up the halves into quarters to allow for more commercials for products like . . . bottled water.

Madonna was obviously pleased with herself, saying, "Music makes the world come together."

Yeah, Madge?  What's that got to do with you? 

And then there was Trump.

By going out onto the podium as the Spanish team held up the Cup in celebration, Trump demonstrated why I argued in February 2024 that he and Madonna are exactly alike.  It doesn't matter that Madonna is one of his biggest detractors.  Trump is so obsessed with himself that he's his favorite subject.  Would you want a hack pop singer who's just as obsessed with herself as Trump is with himself on your side?

In Spain, the image of Trump, looking like a cardboard cutout, was edited out of the team's celebration of their victory.  (That's Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, trying to pull Trump aside, by the way.)  And pundits like Edwin Eisendrath are already talking how he will soon be edited out of American life, once we edit him out office (assuming Trump doesn't edit mail-in ballots and black and Hispanic voters out of the midterms).   Madonna, I'm afraid, will never be edited out of our culture.  Her 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and her record-setting singles and album chart action - along with getting a TV network some of its highest ratings whenever she appears on them - have all seen to that.

Both Donald Trump and Madge are my two most eagerly awaited obituaries, in that order.  There, I said it.

Meanwhile, Americans can stop pretending they like soccer so much.  And yes, I'm glad I watched none of this World Cup.