As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, we received an unexpected gift from millions of World Cup visitors: a fresh reminder of what makes America exceptional.
Tourists from dozens of countries descended on American cities this summer for the World Cup, or FIFA 2026, and what they found shattered everything their media had told them. They had been warned about an angry, divided, dangerous country in irreversible decline. Instead, they found something so ordinary it became extraordinary: a country that looked nothing like the headlines they’d been told to believe.
They found strangers holding doors, police officers posing for photos with kids, neighbors grilling in backyards, firefighters waving tourists over to see their fire engines, packed churches and thriving businesses. Communities celebrating together, not defined by the partisan noise that dominates their televisions back home.
THE USA IS A FIFA WORLD CUP HIT AS VISITORS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE ARE IN LOVE WITH AMERICANA
And they posted all of it to social media. In the process, they created what may be the most effective marketing campaign America never paid for. Millions of visitors documenting, in real time, a version of America that looked nothing like the one portrayed in so many headlines.
Visitors went viral marveling at the everyday abundance America offers. They posted videos gushing over free refills and ice water that just shows up at the table – no charge, no questions asked. At Buc-ee’s, which foreign tourists treated it like a national monument, they marveled at the spotless restrooms, brisket sandwiches and seemingly endless abundance. At Waffle House at one in the morning, they treated it like a Michelin-starred restaurant. At Costco and Walmart, where entire aisles are devoted to a single product category. At Bass Pro Shops, which more than a few tourists genuinely mistook for a theme park.
The reaction wasn’t isolated. Across social media and international news coverage, visitors kept reaching the same conclusion. British visitors made headlines with a blunt admission that has since gone viral: “We were wrong about Americans.” Reuters documented visitor after visitor leaving with a fundamentally changed view of the United States. Axios captured the moment tourists discovered free chips and salsa and nearly lost their minds.
It would be easy to laugh at all of this, but we should be paying very close attention to what’s actually happening here.
These visitors aren’t amazed by free refills; they’re amazed by what free refills represent. They’re seeing, for the first time and with fresh eyes, the product of 250 years of freedom, capitalism, hard work and the most audacious political experiment in human history.
A grocery store with 50 cereal options isn’t normal globally. Air conditioning in nearly every building isn’t normal globally. Endless consumer choice, convenience on demand, food available at any hour, none of it is normal. We’ve simply lived here long enough to forget that and have taken much of America’s abundance for granted.
AMERICA DIDN’T GIVE ELON MUSK A TRILLION DOLLARS. HE EARNED EVERY PENNY
America produces roughly one-quarter of the world’s economic output while representing only about 4% of its population. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because generations of Americans were free to build, invent, take risks and create. The abundance visitors are marveling at today, from endless grocery aisles to air-conditioned stores and everyday conveniences, is the product of 250 years of freedom, innovation and opportunity.
Yet the abundance wasn’t what surprised visitors most. What surprised them even more was the people.
If you judged this country solely by social media or cable news, even as an American, you might think we despise one another. Yet millions of World Cup visitors traveling city by city and state by state have discovered a very different America, one filled with generous, welcoming and open-hearted people.
They found the America the headlines miss. The real one. And perhaps that’s why so many visitors leave with a deeper appreciation for America than some Americans themselves.
And perhaps the most revealing part of this story isn’t what visitors think about America. It’s what their enthusiasm reveals about us. As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, only 53% of Americans say they are very or extremely proud to be American.
Too many Americans have been talked into embarrassment about their own country. They’ve absorbed a relentless message that America is systemically broken, historically irredeemable and structurally cruel. World Cup visitors have something many Americans lack: a point of comparison. They’ve seen other systems, other countries, and other realities.
And their verdict is not close.
The lesson from all of this is simple. The things Americans often take for granted: abundance, opportunity, safety, innovation, generosity and freedom, remain extraordinary to much of the world. Not because America is perfect, but because America is free. And freedom, given 250 years and a people willing to work for it, to fight for it, produces something the rest of the world travels thousands of miles just to witness.
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They came to watch soccer, but they stayed to remind us of who we are.
Happy 250th, America.
The world still sees America’s greatness. It’s past time we did too.
