Mayor Zohran Mamdani used the announcement of a free World Cup watch party in Central Park to go after President Trump, arguing that the president’s immigration crackdown is keeping players, coaches and journalists out of a tournament that is supposed to belong to the whole world. His remarks were first reported by the New York Daily News.

Mamdani pointed to visa denials: journalists from tournament-qualifying countries that sit on the administration’s travel ban list, plus rejected visas for coaches and entire foreign national teams. For a global tournament, he said, the denials contradict the point.

“This is anathema to what this tournament is supposed to be about,” Mamdani said. “If we can’t even allow players, teams, journalists covering them to come to this country, it begs a larger question about our commitment to the spirit of this tournament.”