Trump was front and center during the presentation of gold medals and the new Club World Cup trophy following the tournament's final match at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. The trophy was previously revealed at the White House in March.
Alleged video of the medal-pocketing incident circulated on platforms like X (archived) and TikTok
The Art of The Steal — Donald Trump stole a CWC winners medal yesterday. pic.twitter.com/OskSn199af
— ShanghaiPanda (@thinking_panda) July 14, 2025
The popularity of the sporting event and the circulation of footage of the alleged moment led to an influx of emails from Snopes readers asking for clarification on whether Trump had indeed pocketed a medal.
The claim that Trump pocketed a gold medal during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup trophy ceremony was true, but some posts misrepresented the context surrounding the moment.
As can be seen in
The video cuts to a different angle before showing Trump pocket the medal. However, a second YouTube video from Spanish sports outlet Diario AS showing the same moment from an alternate angle clearly depicted Trump putting the medal in his jacket pocket. These videos matched footage shown in other reports on outlets such as CBS News and CNN.
In the first video, Infantino appeared to present Trump with a medal of his own after hanging others around the necks of the Chelsea players. Trump and Infantino exchanged words in the moment, but what they said was not audible in the video.
Snopes reached out to the White House Press Office and FIFA for further comment on this moment and will update this article if we receive a response.
Some users who shared the claim suggested Trump withheld the medal from Chelsea captain Reece James and kept it for himself, but that was demonstrably false. In the YouTube video depicting the entire trophy ceremony, Trump could be seen putting a medal on James around 12 minutes in, just before Infantino handed him the medal he eventually pocketed.
Speculation about whether Trump "stole" the medal likely arose from news reports about Trump's appearance at the match in general. During his appearance, Trump remained on stage during the winning team's traditional trophy raising, leading to confusion from some players.
Further, Trump did an interview with DAZN Football in which he claimed that the Club World Cup trophy had remained in his possession at the White House since it was unveiled there in March 2025.
"They said, 'Could you hold this trophy for a little while?' We put it in the Oval Office," Trump told a reporter. "And then I said, 'When are you going to pick up the trophy?' He says, 'We're never going to pick it up. You can have it forever in the Oval Office. We're making a new one.'"
In other words, while it is true that Trump pocketed a medal handed to him during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup trophy ceremony, there is no evidence to support assertions that he did so without FIFA's knowledge or that he stole it from one of the players.
Rather, it appeared that internet users conflated other events surrounding Trump, FIFA and the trophy with the moment in which he pocketed the medal Infantino handed him.