# Andrew Giuliani Son of [[Rudy Giuliani]] and, since May 2025, executive director of the **White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026** — the position that placed him at the center of the [[FIFA Balogun Intervention]], the July 2026 episode in which the White House pressed FIFA to lift a U.S. player's suspension. ## Background - **First Trump term**: special assistant to the president and associate director of the Office of Public Liaison in the [[First Trump Administration]] — a role widely described in the press as a patronage appointment tied to his father's standing with Trump. - **2022 New York governor's race**: ran for the Republican nomination and lost the primary to [[Lee Zeldin]]. - **World Cup task force**: Trump announced his appointment as executive director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026 on Truth Social in May 2025. The task force was created to coordinate federal support — security, visas, transportation, interagency logistics — for the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. ## The Balogun Episode In early July 2026, per reporting by Politico's Sophia Cai, Giuliani told Trump that USMNT forward Folarin Balogun had been suspended for the Round-of-16 match against Belgium after a red card in the Round of 32. As the U.S. Soccer Federation prepared and filed its appeal, Giuliani and Commerce Secretary [[Howard Lutnick]] offered White House lawyers to the effort and dug into the professional history of the referee who made the call. Trump then telephoned FIFA president [[Gianni Infantino]]; FIFA's Disciplinary Committee converted the ban to a year of probation on July 5. The episode is the clearest illustration to date of what the World Cup task force role actually confers: a channel from a family-connected White House staffer directly to the president, and from the president to the governing body of world football. See [[FIFA Balogun Intervention]] for the full sequence and the reaction from UEFA and the Belgian federation. ## See Also - [[Rudy Giuliani]] — his father - [[FIFA Balogun Intervention]] — the July 2026 episode he helped set in motion - [[Gianni Infantino]] — the FIFA president Trump called - [[Howard Lutnick]] — the cabinet secretary who joined the effort - [[Second Trump Administration]] — the administration he serves in