U.S. Transportation Secretary Duffy Opening Remarks for FIFA World Cup 2026 Kickoff Celebration

I love that. I love that. Uh the beautiful game, a perfect example that it's more than just what happens on the field. It's a little bit of everything. Uh pretty awesome. Uh right now, I'd like to turn things over to the host of today's event, the 20th US Transportation Secretary, Sean P. Duffy. How great is this? We have Kobe here uh mcing our event. He is a a legend uh a national soccer hall of famer uh a three-time World Cup player um Fox Sports analyst. So Kobe, thank you for being here. Thank you for doing this for us. uh again bringing so much energy in a in a week of great soccer energy with uh the FIFA draw tomorrow. So we are truly grateful for that. Hey everybody. Yeah, welcome to DOT. THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING. LISTEN, we are excited. Tomorrow u uh is uh going to be a great day at the Kennedy Center. uh center. President Trump is going to be there. Thousands of people are going to be in attendance, but around the world, a billion people are going to tune in to watch the draw at the Kennedy Center. Uh so we're excited that we're kicking uh the event off uh today here at DOT. Um we're excited about FIFA. Uh the president is excited about FIFA because it's a a great sporting event, but it's going to come to America on our 250th anniversary. And again, in America, we love sports. We love to celebrate our birthdays. So to combine those two things together is going to be absolutely fantastic. On top of that, at the White House, we're going to have the first ever UFC fight as well. Also, it's going to be uh a great uh a great uh celebration of America's 250th birthday. Um as we look to these games, right, we're going to have 6 million people that are going to come into the United States uh to watch these games. So, I've talked with state, I've talked with Homeland, we've partnered uh together. The president has given this directive. Uh if you're watching around the world, we're going to make travel seamless for you as you come into the country. We're going to make it as easy as possible so you can come in and enjoy uh the uh the great World Cup event that's going to go off. Some people have wondered, well, we're here at DOT. Why are we at DOT? What do you have to do with um FIFA in the World Cup in soccer? I don't want to overstate it. Uh, but I think we may be more important than the the the coaches, the refs, maybe the players, I'm not sure. We have a big role in making sure that this event goes off really well. And so, just want to talk about uh that a little bit because people move uh throughout the country uh uh during the World Cup on planes, trains, and automobiles. And so, first uh we have the FAA. The FAA knows we're going to have a lot of international travel that comes into the country. And then as people get to the uh to the US, uh a lot of people are going to travel by uh by airplane between the host cities. We are clearing the skies, clearing the decks, making sure air travel is going to be seamless. The FAA is already working on that. The one thing we can't control is the weather. So if we have weather issues that pop up, I I don't have uh uh any control on that. But the FAA is working to make sure air travel um goes incredibly well. Uh rail, um we're prepping our tracks, uh making sure we have enough cars as as fans go between host cities, making sure that our rail runs on time, our rail is safe. All that work is happening right now as we prep for a massive number of fans coming into the country. uh motor carriers uh incredibly important as people travel between host cities on buses, making sure we have uh uh uh buses that are safe, making sure we have drivers uh that are vetted. But almost more important than that, as our fans go to uh to to the games, uh we need to make sure that we have enough beer and hot dogs. And it's our motor carriers that make sure that uh we are well stocked with all of the accutramonts uh uh for an enjoyable game. They also bring in all of the equipment that allows uh our our networks to broadcast this event worldwide. And so that's the role that uh motor carriers play. One of the uh biggest parts of what we do though is is transit and making sure that uh our our subway systems, our buses are uh we have enough cars, we have enough buses. We actually bring in additional assets to make sure we can move people seamlessly from the hotels in which they're staying, getting them to the games, getting them there on time, getting them there safely, all happens uh at DOT. And so it just doesn't happen by um us, you know, making it an afterthought. We've been thinking about this for over a year. How do we make these games great? How do we showcase America to showcase then the World Cup? And so I want to thank the whole DOT team who's here again. We have we have consistent meetings. How are we doing? How's everyone working together? And I feel very confident as a secretary that this is going to go off incredibly well. Uh I do want to take a moment and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer for you all, but one of the issues uh that we see uh that I think is um it's it's a tragedy. There's there's a lot of human trafficking um in the US but around the world. And when big sporting events like this happen, um it is a time when uh more human trafficking takes place. uh and uh we want to do all we can to make sure we end we stop these young women uh who are being trafficked. And I want to take a moment uh as talking I was just talking about transit uh the New Jersey uh transit team uh has gone above and beyond to make sure they're running ads uh heightening uh the the knowledge of uh of of their travelers to to understand the signs of someone who may be trafficked. And so the DOT uh today, US DOT is going to award for their great work uh New Jersey Transit an additional $50,000 uh as a recognition of the work that they're doing to stop human trafficking uh and to maybe put a few more resources into that effort uh to make sure people see the signs. Again, we we want to enjoy these games. Um it's a great time to celebrate. Um it's a great time for countries to rally around their teams. Uh but we also want to make sure that um if there are bad things happening that we're doing all we can to stop it. So to New Jersey Transit uh we thank them for all that that they're doing. So uh again I want to welcome you all to DOT. Uh thank you for being here. I want you all to know that again we are working incredibly hard. Um, and it's not just us. Again, though, we probably have the most important part of this. Um, don't tell Marco Rubio or Christine I said that. Uh, but we do. Uh, but we all are working together. And what I love is that our president I I was you go to the Oval Office, he he he's he he's had a FIFA trophy sitting in in the in the Oval for for months on end. He is excited about the games and has given our a directive to all his cabinet secretaries. Make sure this is seamless. Make sure this is great. make sure this is the greatest sporting event for the World Cup ever. And so that is the mission and that's what we're trying to deliver on. Um I'm a hockey guy. I'm sorry Kobe, not necessarily a a soccer guy. It was before my time in Northern Wisconsin. So I'm going to give you um the 1980 Olympic hockey team, Herb Brooks, uh whose famous quote was, "Great moments are born from great opportunity." Gentlemen, we have a great opportunity coming this summer. Let's maximize it. Let's love it. Let's have a blast. Let's have a ball. Let's stay safe. And uh let's make sure uh the US wins. With that, Kobe, I'll give it back to you. Thank you.