The celebrations of America’s 250th birthday, though they offered many wonderful moments, did not provide the sweeping sense of national unity for which some people had hoped. Some Americans found the July 4 weekend too political, too polarizing, and offering too much President Trump.But another event this summer has proved to be a source of infectious patriotism: the World Cup. A tournament that started with so much angst—so much “ugh,” some might say—has turned into a joyful celebration of America. A nation that, by reputation, doesn’t even like soccer is now rallying around its upstart team. TV ratings are at an all-time high, attendance records are being set, and the American squad can advance to the quarterfinals if it triumphs in tonight’s game against Belgium. Politics have mostly been irrelevant (well, until yesterday’s red-card controversy), and many Americans have briefly set aside their red-versus-blue differences to rally together in the nation’s swirly red, white, and blue soccer kits.Something else has happened over the past four weeks of this tournament: People from around the world came to our shores and fell in love with our country. The United States’ international standing has been badly damaged in the Trump era—alliances have been strained, bombs have been dropped, foreign aid has been cut—yet waves of foreign visitors have been moved by what they have found. There have been exceptions, and some of the good vibes are surely online fabrications, but for many, the geopolitical tensions have been temporarily set aside. Thousands of Norwegians marveled at the lights of Times Square. Algerians were delighted by the warm welcome they received in Lawrence, Kansas. The Scots drank Boston out of beer. A supposed German tourist went viral for a chain-restaurant tour of the South. The America on display was the land of plenty: full supermarkets, air-conditioning that actually works in a heat wave, endless appetizers and breadsticks. The United States’ soft power now relies less on USAID than on Applebee’s.The respite may be brief. Right around when tonight’s U.S. match wraps up, Trump will depart Washington and head to a NATO summit in Turkey, where, if past is prologue, he could clash with world leaders over defense spending, the war in Ukraine, and who knows what else. A high-stakes midterm election is coming, and there is little expectation that the good feelings created by the American squad’s run will last. But right now, let’s enjoy this summer party—even if it’s not the one we expected.For a time, organizers and others thought America 250 might be that galvanizing, flag-waving force. And there was precedent. The nation’s bicentennial, in 1976, also arrived at a fraught moment, just two years after the resignation of President Richard Nixon. There was a fuel crisis, skyrocketing inflation, high unemployment, the recent trauma of Vietnam, plus the Cold War. Yet the nation’s 200th birthday largely was a triumph. President Gerald Ford, knowing that the country needed to heal after Watergate, tried to make it a bipartisan celebration. He allowed the nation’s history, good and bad, to take center stage. He acknowledged that much work needed to be done to make it a safer, more equitable nation. For many, the parade of tall ships through New York Harbor and the massive fireworks display was a moment of renewed optimism.Our politics have grown only more partisan in the past 50 years, and Trump has never pretended to be interested in governing all of his nation’s people. He took office promising retribution, and he’s shown a keen interest in remaking the nation, especially its capital, in his image. The Kennedy Center. The East Wing. A triumphal arch. The list is exhausting. He’s put himself in charge of telling our nation’s story; his administration has removed signs he doesn’t like from the nation’s parks, and is eyeing the Smithsonian next. It came as no surprise that he’d hijack the semiquincentennial, pushing out the bipartisan America 250 group in favor of the more Trump-friendly Freedom 250. Predictably, the anniversary celebrations in Washington took on a MAGA tint, and many Americans who oppose Trump steered clear. A concert featuring C-list stars was canceled. A state fair on the National Mall drew sparse crowds in the sweltering heat. The much-discussed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was closed. Trump’s July 4 speech, delayed by storms, didn’t start until much of the nation had gone to bed. And the smoke from the fireworks display left Washington in a haze of poor air quality.[Read: The capital is a mess]To be clear, there were wonderful moments throughout the nation to celebrate the Fourth of July. Charming parades in small towns. Families all over the country manning the BBQs and the sparklers, and maybe reminiscing about James Madison. A naturalization ceremony on Long Island. Readings of the Declaration of Independence in Massachusetts. Trump recognized several elderly veterans in his speech on the National Mall. And, yes, the tall ships were back in New York Harbor, this time accompanied by a military flyover.On July 4, in addition to watching the fireworks, millions of Americans were watching France take on Paraguay in the cradle of independence, Philadelphia. The game lost a little of its historical luster when Germany was upset by Paraguay (FIFA spared England the possibility of suffering a second devastating loss on July 4), but the roster of history makers in Philadelphia added a name: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and now Mbappé. France’s 1–0 victory not even four miles south of Independence Hall was just one of the tournament’s seemingly endless supply of can’t-miss matches—and perhaps its biggest victory on these shores since Yorktown.[Listen: How the World Cup explains the world ]The tournament has not been without its problems. Tickets are astronomically expensive. A highly decorated referee was barred from traveling from his native Somalia. International visits were much lower than expected. The Iranian team played a match the same day that Trump authorized a strike on its nation amid a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz. But, as I wrote last month, there was always the hope that the games would overcome whatever had seemed off about the tournament. And they have. Who will forget Cape Verde’s magical run and near upset of defending champion Argentina? England surviving the cauldron that is playing Mexico in Mexico City? How so many of the tournament’s biggest stars—Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, and more—have delivered for their squads?But those bravura performances won’t be what I remember most about this World Cup. I’ll recall the Brazilians singing in the NJ Transit train as we journeyed to a World Cup match at MetLife Stadium. The Norwegians taking over a subway escalator to do their traditional “Viking Row” celebration. Watch parties at JCPenney stores. How every game day brings a new torrent of fans sporting soccer kits. In a popular culture that is so fragmented, there was something refreshing about how so many conversations, either online or in person, were about the same thing. At dinner the other night, I was happy to provide scores to a neighboring table whose cell signal wasn’t strong enough to refresh the ESPN app. The cities with some of the highest TV ratings—Boston, Austin,and the greater Kansas City area—are in both red and blue states. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, went to a game. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were at the U.S. opener. Trump is expected to attend the final. For Americans who have grown to dread the judgmental looks when traveling overseas, it was a delight to see foreigners enjoying the U.S. again.Trump, for a while, was preoccupied by the 250th celebrations and largely stayed out of the World Cup. But I knew that wouldn’t last. After a stellar group stage, the U.S.A. played Bosnia-Herzegovina in its first knockout game last week. Nursing a 1–0 lead, one of the team’s stars, Folarin Balogun, was given a red card, which meant that he was ejected from that match, leaving his team to play with 10 men. The U.S. still managed to win and advance to face Belgium, but Balogun was supposed to be suspended from playing in that match as part of the punishment for the red card. Now, let’s be clear: The call was bogus. No foul was assessed in real time, and the red card was awarded only after the official stared at a slow-motion replay. It was a bad break, but there was also little that the U.S. could do.[Read: A very bad World Cup call]Enter Trump. He called his pal Gianni Infantino, head of FIFA—who has spent nearly two years buttering up Trump, including awarding him the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. And suddenly, out of nowhere, FIFA lifted Balogun’s ban, a decision that drew outrage from many international teams and fans. (Perhaps it escaped Trump’s attention that Balogun, who grew up in the United Kingdom but was born in the United States while his Nigerian mother was visiting New York, was allowed to play for the U.S. because of birthright citizenship, the constitutional protection Trump wants eliminated.) The president quickly took a victory lap, but the karma is not great.The hard feelings around the decision will hopefully be fleeting. A series of great games await before the World Cup wraps up on July 19. And right now, the surprising sense of national spirit is worth cherishing, and the renewed affection for the United States that so many nations are feeling is worth savoring.So many nations—except for Belgium.