President Donald Trump says the NFL should have thought harder about playing in Paris this weekend. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Oct. 23, before leaving for a rally in Florida, Trump said the league “could have probably postponed” Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints at the Stade de France, as France braces for another day of protests on Saturday.
“You worry about it,” Trump said. “I think maybe it’s looking like tomorrow is going to be a bad day in France, so you worry about it. I would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match, if you want to know, because France is really in trouble.” He then turned to French politics: “That’s what happens when you go left. That’s what happens when you allow unlimited numbers of people into your country from very unfriendly countries.”
The league did not respond to requests for comment on the remarks on Friday, and nothing about the plan has changed. Both teams are in France, and the first regular-season NFL game in the country kicks off on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, which is 2:30 p.m. in Paris and 4:30 p.m. in Cairo.
What the league has said all week
The NFL’s position has been the same since the unrest began. At the fall owners meeting in New York on Tuesday, Peter O’Reilly, the executive vice president who runs international games, said the game had never been close to being moved and that the league was “confident in our operational and security plans.” He said the league was working with Paris and national authorities as well as the U.S. State Department, “being very vigilant in everything we do, in all of our planning on an hour-by-hour basis.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell called his comfort level “very high” on Wednesday and said he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We’re involved at the highest levels, both in France on a global basis and with our officials here in the United States,” Goodell said at his closing news conference. “We’re guests in the country. We’re going to be good guests. We’re going to do our thing. And I’m confident they’re going to do theirs.” Rubio said separately that the U.S. embassy “feels the game will be fine” and that there was “no indication the game will be impacted in any way.”
On Friday, a few hours before Trump spoke, Goodell, Saints owner Gayle Benson and Steelers owner Art Rooney II spent about two hours with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace to talk about the game and the league’s future in France, as covered in our report on the meeting.
The players have taken the same line. “The NFL is alert to what’s going on,” Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said at the team hotel in Paris on Friday. “This game means a lot to the NFL. If it was unsafe, then I’m sure we wouldn’t be here.” More from Rodgers is in our Paris news conference story.
Saints fans are hyped in Paris! 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/UsRHp8kQ0K
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 24, 2026
A tense weekend in Paris
Trump’s comments came as France prepared for another nationwide day of protests over the cost of living and the state of the country’s schools. Last weekend’s demonstrations ended in rioting and looting, with more than 2,000 people arrested across the country, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked regional authorities this week to impose partial evening curfews. The government has said 70,000 police officers and gendarmes will be on duty on Saturday.
The State Department issued a security alert late on Thursday. “Numerous groups submitted plans for protests on Saturday, October 24,” it said. “Americans in Paris for the NFL game on Sunday, October 25 should also exercise caution and be aware of their surroundings. While permits may be filed for demonstration routes, last-minute changes can happen and protests can occur outside planned routes.”
The unrest has already cost the league part of its game week. The NFL Experience fan festival below the Eiffel Tower was shut, the Steelers called off their walk-through at the Stade de France and canceled their Bastille fan bar, and the league closed its Paris store for Saturday and moved it to a pop-up at the stadium. Paris Saint-Germain’s home match against Lyon was moved from Sunday to Monday at the request of the Paris police prefecture, easing the load on officers who will also be patrolling the NFL game. Our latest Paris weekend report has the march ban, the closed Metro stations and the stadium shop hours, and the earlier update covers the fan festival and the security plan.
The Stade de France is in Saint-Denis, just north of the city and about six miles from the neighborhoods hit hardest by last weekend’s looting. The league has said it does not believe the game will take police resources away from the wider response, and it has given no sign of reconsidering.
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