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President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to take away comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship, something that he cannot legally do, reigniting a decadeslong feud between the pair.

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Saturday.

Constitutionally, the U.S. president doesn’t legally have the power to “take away” one’s citizenship, as Trump is threatening to do. The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States. O’Donnell was born in Commack, New York, according to IMDb.

Trump’s post on Saturday comes as his administration has sought to revoke birthright citizenship from the children of parents who are not U.S. citizens, but that has stalled in court.

The president has also threatened to “look” at whether New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is in the U.S. illegally. There is no evidence that Mamdani is in the U.S. illegally. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, became a naturalized citizen in 2018.

In a post on Instagram later Saturday, O’Donnell responded to Trump’s Truth Social post, writing, “hey donald — you’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.”

“You call me a threat to humanity —
but I’m everything you fear:
a loud woman
a queer woman
a mother who tells the truth
an american who got out of the country b4 u set it ablaze,” O’Donnell added.

The Instagram caption did not mention Jeffrey Epstein — the disgraced financier who died in 2019 after allegations of sex trafficking — but the photo O’Donnell posted alongside her caption was one of Trump with his arm around Epstein.

The Trump administration faced criticism from conservative media figures this week after claiming that an “exhaustive review” of files related to Epstein turned up no “incriminating client list” belonging to Epstein.

In her caption, O’Donnell also addressed Trump’s threats to revoke her citizenship, comparing him to the fictional King Joffrey from the popular book series and HBO show “Game of Thrones.”

“You want to revoke my citizenship?” O’Donnell wrote.
“Go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. i’m not yours to silence
i never was.”

Trump’s latest attacks against O’Donnell came after she revealed in a March 2025 TikTok post that she had moved to Ireland in January, saying, “When it’s safe for all citizens to have equal rights there, in America, that’s when we’ll consider coming back.”

In that same video, O’Donnell also said she was in the process of getting her Irish citizenship, as she has Irish grandparents. The U.S. allows dual citizenship.

In March, during a visit to the White House from Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Trump addressed O’Donnell’s move to Ireland.

The U.S. president asked Martin, “Why in the world would you let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland? I think she’s going to lower your happiness levels.”

Trump and O’Donnell have lobbed insults at each other for almost two decades, beginning in 2006 when O’Donnell, then a co-host of “The View,” was critical of Trump’s decisions regarding a Miss USA winner.

The two exchanged jabs for years after that, but the spat drew headlines again when Trump ran for president in 2015.

He invoked O’Donnell’s name on the debate stage in 2015, when he was asked about his use of the terms “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals” to describe some women.

OCHOPEE, Fla. — Democratic lawmakers condemned Florida’s new Everglades immigration detention center after visiting Saturday, describing it as crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested. Republicans on the same tour said they saw nothing of the sort at the remote facility that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The state-arranged tour came after some Democrats were blocked earlier from viewing the 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. So many state legislators and members of Congress turned up Saturday that they were split into multiple groups.

“There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, told reporters after visiting the tents, trailers and temporary buildings. “This place is a stunt, and they’re abusing human beings here.”

Cage-style units of 32 men share three combination toilet-sink devices, the visitors measured the temperature at 83 degrees in a housing area entranceway and 85 in a medical intake area, and grasshoppers and other insects abound, she and her fellow Florida Democrats said.

Although the visitors said they were not able to speak with the detainees, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, also a Democrat, said one called out “I’m an American citizen!” and others chanted “Libertad!,” Spanish for “freedom.”

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican from Florida, countered that he had seen a well-run, safe facility where the living quarters were clean and the air conditioning worked well.

“The rhetoric coming out of the Democrats does not match the reality,” said Ingoglia, who said he toured in the same group as Wasserman Schultz. Ingoglia said a handful of detainees became “a little raucous” when the visitors appeared, but he did not make out what they were saying.

Republican state Sen. Jay Collins was in another group and said he also found the detention center to be clean and functioning well: “No squalor.”

Collins said he saw backup generators, a tracking system for dietary restrictions and military-style bunks with good mattresses. The sanitation devices struck him as appropriate, if basic.

“Would I want that toilet-and-sink combination at my bathroom at the house? Probably not, but this is a transitional holding facility,” Collins said by phone.

Journalists were not allowed on the tour, and lawmakers were instructed not to bring phones or cameras inside.

Messages seeking comment were sent to the state Division of Emergency Management, which built the facility, and to representatives for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best highlighted one of Ingoglia’s upbeat readouts on social media.

Across the state in Tampa, federal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said “any issues that were there [at the detention center] have been addressed.” She added that she has talked with five Republican governors she did not name about modeling other facilities on it.

DeSantis and fellow Republicans have touted the makeshift detention center, constructed in days, as an efficient and get-tough response to President Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations. The first detainees arrived July 3, after Trump toured and praised the facility.

Described as temporary, it is meant to help the Republican president’s administration reach its goal of boosting migrant detention capacity from 41,000 people to at least 100,000. The Florida facility’s remote location and its name — a nod to the notorious Alcatraz prison that once housed federal inmates in California — are meant to underscore a message of deterring illegal immigration.

Ahead of the facility’s opening, state officials said detainees would have access to medical care, consistent air conditioning, a recreation yard, attorneys and clergy members.

But detainees and their relatives and advocates have told The Associated Press that conditions are awful, with worm-infested food, toilets overflowing onto floors, mosquitoes buzzing around the fenced bunks, and air conditioners that sometimes shut off in the oppressive South Florida summer heat. One man told his wife that detainees go days without getting showers.

Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Stephanie Hartman called those descriptions “completely false,” saying detainees always get three meals a day, unlimited drinking water, showers and other necessities.

“The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order,” she said.

Five Democratic state lawmakers tried to visit the site July 3 but said they were denied access. The state subsequently arranged Saturday’s tour.

The lawmakers have sued over the earlier denial, accusing the DeSantis administration of impeding their oversight authority. A DeSantis spokesperson has called the lawsuit “dumb.”

The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away Covid-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction.

Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. The charges were brought when Joe Biden was president.

“Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so,” Bondi wrote. “He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.”

Felice John Viti, acting U.S. attorney for Utah, filed the motion Saturday, saying “such dismissal is in the interests of justice.”

The trial began Monday in Salt Lake City with jury selection. It was expected to last 15 days.

Messages sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, Viti’s office in Salt Lake City and to Moore were not immediately returned Saturday.

A federal grand jury on Jan. 11, 2023, returned an indictment against Moore, his Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah Inc., others associated with the clinic and a neighbor of Moore’s. The indictment alleged more than $28,000 of government-provided Covid-19 vaccine doses were destroyed.

They were also accused of providing fraudulently completed vaccination record cards for over 1,900 doses of the vaccine in exchange for either a cash or a donation to a specified charitable organization.

The government also alleged some children were given saline shots, at their parents’ request, so the minors believed they were getting the vaccine.

Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, posted his support for Moore in April, saying on X that Moore “deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing!”

During his confirmation hearings in January, Kennedy repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism and that Covid-19 vaccines saved millions of lives.

In a follow-up X post on Saturday, Bondi said Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene brought the case to her attention.

A cannabis farmworker who was critically injured during a chaotic immigration raid by federal authorities in Southern California died Saturday, according to his family.

Jaime Alanis Garcia’s death came days after he fell roughly 30 feet during a raid by federal immigration authorities at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, a city about 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Garcia’s family told NBC Los Angeles that he broke his neck and skull in the fall and was placed on life support shortly afterward — until his wife could travel from Mexico to be by his side before he died.

“His wife and parents decided today to let him rest. He has passed away,” his niece said in a statement Saturday.

His family acknowledged to NBC Los Angeles that Garcia would not have survived the past fews days had he not been connected to an assistive breathing machine.

Neither the United Farm Workers nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately return a request for comment.

Immigration officials said in a statement Friday that Garcia was not in federal custody when he fell.

“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”

The raid drew hundreds of demonstrators, some of whom threw rock and bricks at cars belonging to federal agents. Immigration officers “faced assaults, violence, and even bullets fired at them,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi said in a post on X on Saturday.

In response, federal agents deployed less-lethal weapons and tear gas at the protesters, while employees were being arrested inside the cannabis grow house.

President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday night that he watched the protests “in disbelief,” adding that immigration authorities should use “whatever means is necessary” to arrest people who do not obey the law.

The cannabis farm where Garcia worked was one of two Glass House properties federal officers raided Thursday.

Noem said in Saturday’s X post that the operation led to the arrest of 319 undocumented migrants. Fourteen children were also “rescued” from “potential forced labor, exploitation, and trafficking,” she said.

The raids came more than a month after protests against similar operations in Los Angeles virtually shut down parts of the city and captured the nation’s attention.

In response, Trump took the rare step of deploying the National Guard to quell protesters.

On Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, signed a directive requiring city departments to submit preparedness plans detailing how employees, including contractors, should respond if approached by federal immigration authorities.

TAMPA, Fla. — On the weekend President Donald Trump decided to pick his biggest political fight to date with the MAGA base he created in his own image, thousands of his adherents were gathered together.

And all they wanted to talk about here at the Student Action Summit hosted by the conservative activist group Turning Point USA was the “Epstein files.”

“I think that these people — and I don’t know, for whatever reason, there could be reasons — but I don’t think they’re telling us the truth about Epstein,” podcaster Brandon Tatum told the assembled crowd at the Tampa Convention Center. “I think that that that guy was involved in something nefarious that implicates a whole lot of people. And my guess is that the whole lot of people may have, may happen to be some of our allies and some people that we don’t want to have a bad relationship with.”

Trump pulled the rug out from his base Saturday evening when he released a lengthy social media post that completely dismissed the importance of the issue that has consumed the right for the past week — and longer.

“For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again,” Trump posted on Truth Social, blaming the files on Democrats. “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.”

Trump’s supporters have gone along with him through every scandal and policy shift. When he made a decision, his base backed him. But the Epstein issue is challenging this alliance like never before.

This week, the Justice Department said it would not release any additional files related to the case of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in 2019 while in custody, and a medical examiner ruled his death a suicide. He was facing sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Attorney General Pam Bondi released a two-page memo saying that the department’s review turned up no “client list” of powerful men who allegedly participated in Epstein’s schemes, and there was no “credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.”

The memo enraged Trump supporters, who quickly turned on Bondi, a sentiment clearly felt at the Student Action Summit. For years, some top figures in the Trump administration had pushed unfounded theories about the Epstein files, and Bondi herself told Fox News in February that the Epstein client was “sitting on my desk right now.” Trump also repeatedly said he would release the Epstein files.

And in February, Bondi kept the issue alive by bringing right-wing influencers to the White House and giving them Epstein documents. But even that release wasn’t enough, as the influencers — and even Bondi herself — insisted that the FBI had more documents that it wasn’t sharing.

There was no escaping the topic of the Epstein files this weekend in Tampa, with many attendees and speakers calling for Bondi to be fired — even as Trump sent the clear message that he wants his supporters to move on.

“It’s not even about Pam Bondi to me. It’s like, look, Trump, we elected you because you were supposed to be different,” said Sharon Allen, a 24-year-old attendee. “So you have to prove to us you’re different….you can fire her [Bondi], do whatever, but at the end of the day, Trump, you are president. We trusted you to get rid of these people and expose these people.”

Former Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who was among Trump’s biggest supporters when in the state Legislature and was in attendance at the event, called Trump’s Truth Social post “out of touch.”

“Trump is losing his touch,” Sabatini said. “Bad personnel are undermining him left and right. We need a full reset.”

Trump’s message on Truth Social also defended Bondi. Summit attendees almost universally sided with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both of whom, NBC News and other outlets reported, were frustrated with Bondi’s handling of the Epstein documents.

Bongino and Patel used their considerable conservative media platforms prior to joining the Trump administration to amplify the idea that the Epstein case was part of a government-orchestrated cover-up to protect powerful political players.

“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’” Trump wrote Saturday evening. “They are all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!”

But it’s not clear that Trump’s post will be enough to quell the furor.

On the main stage Friday night at the Student Action Summit Megyn Kelly, a high-profile conservative commentator and Trump supporter, asked crowd a simple question: Bondi or Bongino?

“Bongino!” the crowd screamed in unison Friday night.

“It’s 7,000 to 0,” responded Charlie Kirk, prominent conservative activist and head of Turning Points USA, who was the master of ceremonies for the weekend.

Trump’s post came after a day of attempts by the White House to tamp down simmering rage from the base.

Patel posted Saturday on X that rumors of him considering resignation were “conspiracy theories.” The White House also issued a statement Friday saying all the players involved continue to have Trump’s support.

“President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said. “This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.”

These attempts did little to lower the temperature in Tampa.

“Breaking news,” Steve Bannon, a vocal Trump supporter who is pushing for Bondi’s removal, told a crowd at the summit. “Kash Patel has notified that if Dan Bongino resigns because of Pam Bondi’s…mishandling of the Epstein files that he, Kash Patel, will step down as director of the FBI to follow Dan.”

Other prominent MAGA World influencers also continued to hammer the issue Saturday afternoon, even as the White House was trying to project unity.

“I will not rest until we go full Jan. 6 committee on the Epstein Files. Every single client involved should have an FBI agent at their door going after them the same way they went after the Jan. 6ers,” Jack Psobiec, a vocal Trump online supporter, told the conference Saturday afternoon. “That’s how we should go after everyone on the Epstein client list.”

President Donald Trump has come out in support of embattled Attorney General Pam Bondi following a dispute between her and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The Justice Department decided not to release any additional Epstein files and has affirmed that there is no list containing Epstein’s clients. Bongino, frustrated with the DOJ’s decision, had a heated confrontation with Bondi and has considered resigning from his post amid the disagreement, according to a person who has spoken with Bongino and a source familiar with the interactions that Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel have had with Bondi.

Epstein died in 2019 while in custody, and a medical examiner ruled his death a suicide. He was facing sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.

The handling of the Epstein files has become a flashpoint of disagreement among MAGA conservatives.

Trump sought to unify his party Saturday as he came out in support of Bondi, taking to social media to say she is doing a “fantastic job” and that his administration should all be “one Team.”

“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump wrote.

The president went on to name-check Patel, saying his agency should be focused on a list of other priorities, “instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein.” The list included calling for an investigation into the 2020 election, which Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed was rigged.

“LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!” Trump wrote, adding that people should “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

It’s a key part of the Democratic strategy in both the House and the Senate, where the party will have to win four seats to retake the chamber. Few if any states are as important to that mission as Georgia, where Ossoff is the lone Democratic senator running for re-election in a state won by Trump.

The Georgia incumbent’s message comes as Democrats work to recover from record-low ratings for the party and engage a voter base eager to hear the party’s plan to counter Trump.

“I want more visibility. I want them to speak and say this is not what we want and this is how we’re going to make changes,” said Stacey Michael, a Savannah resident and a veteran. “Don’t leave us blindly wondering.”

Georgia’s role as a political bellwether has sharpened in recent years, with the deeply polarized state voting for the winner of the last three presidential elections and helping determine control of the Senate after 2020 and 2022. The Southern battleground served as a beacon for Democrats during and immediately after Trump’s first term. They lauded victories there as proof that Trump turned off moderate voters and that Democrats were surging in a state with a decadeslong history of supporting Republican candidates.

Now, the party will look to Ossoff to determine if Democrats’ run of wins in federal races before Trump’s 2024 showing was, as Republicans argue, an anomaly fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic — or whether Georgia is a truly purple battleground.

Winning another term would require Ossoff to reverse the trends that powered Trump’s victory last year: higher turnout among Republican voters, marginal shifts rightward in Democratic strongholds and waning enthusiasm among core Democratic constituencies. One Georgia-based political scientist said Ossoff’s re-election, while possible, will be an uphill battle.

“Georgia is still more competitive than it was in the mid-2000s but the fundamentals of the state still privilege Republicans,” said Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University.

And Ossoff voters agree that he’ll have to make an effective appeal to the state’s Republican constituency to win.

“We got to get better at winning elections and getting the message out and compromising on the issues that we’re arguing about amongst ourselves. We’ve got to really get better at that,” said Savannah resident William Heard, a retired schoolteacher.

The demographic shifts powering Georgia’s battleground status

Georgia’s competitiveness, Gillespie said, stems from its demographic mix. Black people make up roughly a third of the overall population, according to census data. But unlike neighboring Southern states with large Black populations, Georgia, over the last decade, has also seen significant increases in its Latino and Asian American populations, other groups historically more likely to support Democratic candidates — though Republicans made inroads with each of those groups in 2024.

And while most Black voters again supported Democratic candidates in 2024, they did not turn out at the same rate as white Georgians, according to analysis by the Brennan Center.

Meanwhile, three of the four largest counties in metro Atlanta, Democrats’ most important source of votes in the state, shifted rightward last year.

A New York Times analysis of election data shows that while Democrats did gain in some of the outer suburbs, Fulton County, the home of Atlanta and Georgia’s most populous county, saw a 1.5-point shift toward Trump compared to 2020. Gwinnett County, the state’s second largest, saw a slightly larger shift toward the right, while DeKalb County, the fourth-biggest county, saw a nearly 3-point move.

Behind that shift was an effort by the Republican chairs of the metro Atlanta counties to reactivate what they described as a quiet Republican constituency in the overwhelmingly blue region. In coordination with the Trump campaign, the county chairs used data analytics to target low-propensity conservative voters in the region with door-knocks, digital ads and high-profile surrogates, like current FBI Director Kash Patel and Lara Trump.

AI chatbot Grok, which is produced by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, issued an apology Saturday after it made numerous antisemitic posts on X this week following an update.

The posts ranged from alleging “patterns” in the roles of Jewish people in Hollywood to praising Hitler.

In a statement posted on Grok’s X account, the company apologized “for the horrific behavior that many experienced.”

“Our intent for @grok is to provide helpful and truthful responses to users,” the statement read. “After careful investigation, we discovered the root cause was an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot. This is independent of the underlying language model that powers @grok.”

The update was active for 16 hours, and made the chatbot “susceptible to existing X user posts; including when such posts contained extremist views,” according to the statement.

“We have removed that deprecated code and refactored the entire system to prevent further abuse. The new system prompt for the @grok bot will be published to our public github repo,” the statement said.

On Monday, NBC News reported that Grok had begun issuing some answers that seemed to take a more rightward tilt, using a more definitive voice in questions about diversity and removing some nuance it previously included in certain answers around topics that involved Jewish people and a slur used to describe people with intellectual disabilities. In some posts, Grok appeared to respond in the voice of Musk.

After the incident, Grok said in an X post that it was “actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.” On Wednesday, Musk said the issues were “being addressed.”

“We thank all of the X users who provided feedback to identify the abuse of @grok functionality, helping us advance our mission of developing helpful and truth-seeking artificial intelligence,” Grok said in Saturday’s apology.

The FIFA Club World Cup final takes place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday as reigning European champions Paris Saint-Germain face a resurgent Chelsea, with these two young teams showcasing the future of the game.

Both will be chasing not only the Club World Cup trophy and the glory of being named the best club on the planet, but also the extra $10 million prize money the winner will receive to take their minimum earnings from this tournament to just under $100 million.

Even for these superwealthy teams, every little bit helps.

Here are some key storylines to focus on ahead of the final, as Luis Enrique’s PSG is the clear favorite over Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea.

Engrossing midfield battle awaits

PSG has the best midfield in the world. Fabian Ruiz, João Neves and Vitinha are cohesive, press in a pack and, when they win it back, are very good at keeping the ball and keeping the pressure on. Chelsea has Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, a combative duo adept at breaking up the rhythm and flow of an opposition’s midfielders — but there are only two of them against PSG’s whirling dervish of a midfield.

PSG’s midfield trio makes it tick and sets off everything else. However, if it doesn’t win the ball back quickly enough, then the three attackers of Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue can’t stay high and be a constant threat to Chelsea’s defense, and they become more isolated despite their incredible work rate. Chelsea’s Caicedo has been in sensational form for some time and will relish his role as the chief disruptor. PSG will do its best to try and smother Fernandez. It will be intriguing to see if Maresca starts with another more defensive midfielder to match up with PSG’s trio, or sticks with his fluid 4-2-3-1 system and asks Cole Palmer to drop deeper from his No. 10 role to occupy one of PSG’s midfielders and impact its incredible rhythm.

Adding extra intrigue to this area of the pitch is the fact that both PSG and Chelsea love to invert their full-backs, with Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes often popping up in midfield and central areas, and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella and Malo Gusto or Reece James doing the same thing. That makes a crucial area of the pitch even more clogged and unpredictable. Bring on the chaos.

Will Ousmane Dembele or João Pedro be the goal-scoring hero?

Both teams have received a big boost during this tournament: the arrival of attackers who can be clinical and provide a crucial cutting edge. Ousmane Dembele returned from injury during the knockout rounds and has made a huge difference. His manager is calling for him to win the Ballon d’Or (the award handed to the best player on the planet) as Dembele’s goals, assists, movement and pressing sum up everything great about this PSG side. But Chelsea received its own massive confidence boost with the signing of João Pedro, who has made a huge impact right away.

The Brazilian international came off the bench in his debut and played a big role in Chelsea beating Palmeiras in the quarterfinal. Then, in his first start, he scored two beauties against his boyhood club Fluminense to send Chelsea to this final. João Pedro had recently been on the beach relaxing, enjoying his offseason break. Yet just days after signing with Chelsea, he looks set to lead its attack in the FIFA Club World Cup final.

Both PSG and Chelsea get goals from all over their attacking lines, but having Dembele back and João Pedro on board now gives them both a dynamic, clinical spearhead to their attack. Of course, Kvaratskhelia and Palmer are mercurial talents for PSG and Chelsea, respectively, and can win any game in a split second with a majestic run, dazzling finish or clever flick. But Ousmane, Dembele and João Pedro provide the driving runs and hold-up play to knit everything together, and they have that crucial ruthlessness in front of the goal.

Chelsea may have the deeper squad

After a grueling six-game run to get to the Club World Cup final after an even more exhausting 10-month 2024-25 season that has seen both teams play more than 60 games, this final will likely be decided by which team uses its bench and squad better. And Chelsea has the deeper team with more options, especially in attack.

PSG’s starting lineup is very settled, and off the bench it usually brings in Bradley Barcola to have an impact. After that, it has some talented young midfielders and striker Goncalo Ramos to play cameo roles. Chelsea has an entire attacking unit full of international stars it can bring on to change things and try to turn the game in its favor. Liam Delap, Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke would start for plenty of big clubs but will likely be available off the bench in the second half. Captain Reece James could start on the bench too but may be crucial as a hybrid midfielder/full-back as both he and Andrey Santos could come on to give Chelsea an extra boost when it needs it most. Chelsea will aim to keep it tight and stop PSG from dominating the tempo of the game, then look to its bench to see who can provide that extra little spark that could crown it the champion of the world.