The Summer of Love: How millions of World Cup visitors proved the media wrong
This summer, millions encountered the America that rarely makes international headlines. The America that helps a stranger lift a suitcase. The America that buys a visitor lunch...
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By Wendy M. Yurgo
When I wrote The Summer of Love a couple of weeks ago, I believed I understood what I had witnessed. Looking back, I realize I had only captured what was happening on the surface.
The story I told was about the extraordinary convergence of America’s 250th birthday and the FIFA World Cup. History had created a moment no one could have planned. As our nation celebrated two and a half centuries of freedom, millions arrived from every corner of the world expecting to watch football. Instead, they became part of America’s birthday celebration. They celebrated with us, laughed with us and, whether they realized it or not, became part of one of the most remarkable summers in our nation’s history.
That was the Summer of Love.
Yet after the article was published, one observation kept following me.
“This isn’t what I expected.”
At first, I took it as a compliment to American hospitality. Then I began asking a much deeper question. Expected based on what?
The more I thought about it, the more another question emerged. How could millions of people from different countries, speaking different languages and representing vastly different cultures, all arrive with remarkably similar expectations about America?
That isn’t a coincidence. It is the power of narrative.
The answer, I believe, reveals the real story of this extraordinary summer.
They came expecting one America. They found another.
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For years, international audiences have been presented with an increasingly dark portrait of the United States under President Donald Trump. In my view, America was portrayed as angry, dangerous, intolerant, culturally barren and hopelessly divided. It was presented not as an imperfect but extraordinary republic, but as a warning to the world. President Trump was cast not merely as a controversial leader, but as the personification of a cruel and unwelcoming nation.
In the months leading up to the World Cup, those themes intensified. Reports focused heavily on immigration enforcement, visa restrictions, gun violence and political unrest. Some supporters chose not to travel because they feared what they believed they would encounter. Even before the opening match, much of the conversation surrounding the tournament centered not on football, but on whether visitors would feel welcome in America.
Some of those concerns reflected real issues. Visa hurdles, rising travel costs and heightened security were legitimate challenges. But they were never the whole story.
The fans came anyway.
They stepped off airplanes carrying flags, scarves and expectations shaped by years of headlines. They entered airports they had been led to believe might feel hostile. They walked streets they had been told were unsafe. They met Americans many had already been conditioned to view with suspicion.
Then something happened.
Not because of a government campaign. Not because of a White House speech. Not because of a carefully crafted public relations effort.
It happened because reality has a way of speaking for itself.
The stories began pouring in. Reuters documented the shift as supporters described experiences that differed dramatically from what they expected. A Scottish supporter in Boston recalled local women repeatedly welcoming her, saying, “They loved us, we loved them.” A British fan in Miami said the America he encountered bore no resemblance to the country he had imagined from years of media coverage. A German supporter was moved to tears by the kindness shown to him. Across social media, visitors shared stories about American hospitality, customer service, neighborhood restaurants, roadside attractions and complete strangers who simply wanted to know where they were from.
These people saw America without an editor standing between them and reality.
That is why this experience matters. Media narratives hold tremendous influence, particularly over people who have never had the opportunity to experience a country for themselves. When the loudest stories consistently focus on a nation’s worst moments, it becomes easy to mistake the exception for the rule and the fragment for the whole.
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America is not a cable news segment. It is more than 340 million people spread across a vast and varied nation. It is cities and farms. Immigrants and families whose roots stretch back generations. It is disagreement and unity, success and failure, struggle and hope. It has real problems, as every nation does. It also possesses generosity, resilience, patriotism, humor and an instinctive willingness to welcome people from around the world.
This summer, millions encountered the America that rarely makes international headlines. The America that helps a stranger lift a suitcase. The America that buys a visitor lunch. The America that patiently explains a menu, offers directions, recommends a neighborhood restaurant and welcomes someone wearing another nation’s colors.
None of this erases legitimate criticisms of the United States or suggests every visitor had a perfect experience. Nor does it mean anyone returned home sharing the same political views. That isn’t the point.
The point is that millions arrived expecting one country and experienced another. The caricature collided with reality. Reality is winning.
There is an irony that should not be lost on any of us. Some of the same outlets that spent months questioning whether America could successfully welcome the world are now reporting on the warmth and hospitality visitors experienced after they arrived.
When these visitors return home, they will once again encounter familiar headlines and familiar narratives about the United States. The difference is that they now possess something they didn’t have before. Their own experience.
No headline can take that away. No commentary can erase it. No one can convince someone they imagined what they personally lived.
Last week I wrote about America’s birthday party. This week I’m writing about what happened after the guests arrived. They came believing what they had been told. They left believing what they had seen.
There is a profound difference between the two.
And perhaps that will become the most enduring legacy of the Summer of Love.
About the Author
Wendy M. Yurgo is a Christian, attorney, entrepreneur, and the Founder and CEO of Revere Payments, a conservative fintech company serving many of the nation’s leading faith based and freedom driven organizations. She writes about where faith collides with the systems shaping our culture, bringing a legal and executive lens to the most urgent issues of our time. Her work is rooted in light, guided by principle, and grounded in truth.
Follow Wendy on Instagram @wendyyurgo and X @paymentsSHEEO.
Loved seeing them all have such a good time here.
the islamic marxist dem party and their msm trash propaganda spend 24/7 bashing America. It is probably even worse in western europe and elsewhere.