President Trump Receives Tribute From U.S. Owner of European Soccer Giants

AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale arrived at his manager Ruben Amorim’s prematch press conference this week wearing a cap clearly inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s famous slogan. Rather than the country of his birth, the white lettering on Cardinale’s red hat read: “Make Milan Great Again.”

There is a distinctly American twang to Milan these days. Cardinale, the club’s owner since a $1.2 billion acquisition in August 2022, was born in Villanova, Pa., an hour and a half drive west of Hershey, Pa. where the team’s No. 11, Christian Pulisic, was raised.

Pulisic’s U.S. compatriot Yunus Musah has appeared in every Milan fixture this season after winning his spot back.

Pulisic has dished out his own nods to Trump in the past. The U.S. men’s national team’s former figurehead caused controversy when he celebrated a goal for the Stars and Stripes in 2024 with a series of contortions inspired by the President. “Well obviously that’s the Trump dance,” Pulisic said at the time. “It was just a dance that everyone’s doing. He’s the one who created it. I just thought it was funny.”

Former USMNT star Tim Howard derided the move as “stupid” and dismissed any claims at impartiality from the forward. “I don’t buy that,” he scoffed. “Any show of support for Donald Trump is political.”

Cardinale has done little to hide his interest in Trump’s politics.

Milan Owner’s Links to President Trump

Gerry Cardinale holding court. — Gerry Cardinale has spoken openly about President Trump in the past. | Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Cardinale’s quest to make Milan “great again” has not been without its difficulties. After inheriting a side which had just been crowned Serie A champions, the U.S. founder of investment group RedBird Capital is yet to see the capture of a major title, with Milan slipping to eighth and fifth in the last two seasons.

It’s been a frustrating adaptation for a businessman who has found “enormous resistance to evolving” in the soccer world. Cardinale’s approach as a disruptor has served him well in other spheres and is why he speaks so favorably about Trump’s administration.

In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this year, Cardinale explained: “Trump is taking the lead in re-underwriting the public-private partnership. We have so much expertise in the private sector in America and the President is harnessing that for the country. That’s what I’m talking about over here in Italy. That’s what I want to see.”

This very week, Cardinale laid out why he would consider it counterintuitive for someone in his position to not have a relationship with Trump’s White House. “You have an administration that’s pro-business. Anybody in corporate America should have a relationship with that administration,” he told the Bloomberg Screentime conference in L.A.

“And that’s not because it’s Trump. Trump is pro-business, he’s very interested in the technology community.”

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