President Donald Trump‘s appearance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup is not panning out the way he expected.
Trump used the ceremony to revive one of his favorite talking points — his supposed bond with the deceased opera legend.
The brief mention during the closing ceremony reopened a decades-old chapter, leaving many wondering how the unlikely relationship began.
Standing beside FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Trump veered off script to reminisce about Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and his history with the venue, according to The Singju Post.
“Pavarotti was here years ago,” Trump told the room, recalling that the singer once praised the space’s acoustics before recording there. “He said, ‘This is the greatest space.’”
The president then pivoted to tenor Christopher Macchio, recounting a private exchange in which he’d asked Macchio to compare himself to Pavarotti.
Trump says he was “great” friends with the late Luciano Pavarotti, then admits he cannot tell the difference between him and Christopher Macchio pic.twitter.com/1GIeCL0YNY
— FactPost (@factpostnews) July 17, 2026
“Luciano was a great friend of mine, Pavarotti, and he was a good singer, and I cannot tell the difference,” Trump continued, “The only one that tells me he’s not as good is Christopher. He says ‘I’m not as good as him.’”
“He was the greatest of all time, as I said. But Christopher Macchio is a great, great talent. A very highly respected person within the world of Opera,” added Trump.
A clip of the exchange made the rounds online.
“The idiot has no idea what ooera is or any operas, so why would anyone listen to him on this like anything else,” one wrote on X. Another added, “Did he pronounce either name correctly? Can’t stand his voice so not listening to the clip?”
Another noted, “Claiming close friendship while unable to distinguish between two people suggests the friendship existed primarily in his imagination,” prompting someone else to write, “He wasn’t. What an embarrassment.”
Someone else recapped, “Great friends? The two men met in 2000 when Trump hired Pavarotti to perform at his Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. But the concert was reported to be rocky, with Trump even storming backstage to confront the singer over the $1.5 million performance.”
The FIFA moment is just the latest chapter in an obsession stretching back nearly a decade.
Trump’s rallies during his first presidential run leaned heavily on Pavarotti’s recording of “Nessun Dorma.”
In April 2017, while hosting Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Trump said Italy has been “a beacon of artistic and scientific achievement that continues today from Venice to Florence, from Verdi to Pavarotti, a friend of mine — great friend of mine.”
Trump gives a shout out to Pavarotti, calls him “a good friend of mine”.
Pavarotti died 10 years ago in 2007. —via @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/MHMT065mh3
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 20, 2017
One user pointed out, “Pavarotti died 10 years ago in 2007,” 10 years before the president’s shoutout.
By 2020, Trump had found a confidant in Macchio, telling him, “I was a friend of Pavarotti. I don’t know whether your voice is better or his.”
Macchio reportedly pushed back, according to an Italian publication, Corriere Della Sera, insisting there was no comparison because Pavarotti was simply the greatest.
Despite the claims of closeness, the record is messier. Trump first brought the tenor to perform at his Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City on November 11, 2000, in a deal reportedly worth $1.5 million.
The show flopped — Pavarotti, battling a severe cold, stopped mid-aria and ended without his usual encores. Reports described a furious Trump storming backstage, demanding a refund.
Trump later denied it to The New York Times, insisting, “That’s totally false. He wasn’t satisfied and wanted to come back. He had the flu. Luciano is a great friend. I don’t get angry at my friends.”
Pavarotti returned that February for a free do-over that critics said fared better, with the Times noting the tenor “didn’t hold back” and showed off “some flashy high notes.”
Whatever warmth existed didn’t rub off on Pavarotti’s relatives.
When the campaign began using “Nessun Dorma” at 2016 rallies, his widow, Nicoletta Mantovani, and daughters Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana objected, as The New York Times reported, stating, “the values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout the course of his artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by the candidate Donald Trump.”
The family cited Pavarotti’s years as a UN Messenger of Peace — a contrast to Trump’s immigration platform.
By the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump’s team had swapped the original Pavarotti recording for a live rendition from Macchio.
Luciano Pavarotti called from the cemetery and told trump to stop playing his songs at his rallies. pic.twitter.com/pmS57dpMH7
— Trump is pro grift (@Youtalkingtume) October 16, 2024
But the tenor’s shadow was impossible to shake.
On Oct. 14, 2024, Pavarotti’s music resurfaced at a Trump town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, moderated by Kristi Noem. About 40 minutes in, a man fainted from the heat inside the packed venue, according to CBS News.
As medics rushed in, Trump ordered staff to “work quickly” and play “Ave Maria,” while the crowd sang “God Bless America” a cappella.
When a second attendee fainted, Trump stopped the Q&A again. In a move that totally dismissed the family’s wishes, he requested Pavarotti’s version specifically, calling it his favorite, before scrapping the rest of the event.
The clip went viral, with one user cracking, “Luciano Pavarotti called from the cemetery and told Trump to stop playing his songs at his rallies.”
From the Isaac Hayes estate to the Rolling Stones, artists have repeatedly asked Trump to leave their catalogs out of it.
Nearly a decade after the Pavarotti family’s first objection, he still hasn’t and keeps pushing to people that the “King of the High Cs” was his boy.
