MILAN – U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday it’s hard to be happy for American Olympians who are speaking out against the administration’s policies, calling one such critic a “real loser” who probably should have stayed home.
It was the latest and most prominent example of U.S. Olympians receiving online backlash for their words at the Milan Cortina Games.
Reporters asked American athletes at a news conference on Friday how they felt representing the country amid the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement actions. Freestyle skier Hunter Hayes replied that he had mixed feelings because he did not agree with the situation, and he was competing in Milan on behalf of everyone who helped him get to the Games.
“If it matches my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” Hayes said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s happening in America.”
YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul was also among those who killed Hayes.
“On behalf of all true Americans if you don’t want to represent this country then live somewhere else,” he wrote on X, where he has 4.4 million followers. Minutes later, she was photographed sitting with US Vice President JD Vance at a US women’s hockey game in the Olympic host city of Milan.
Trump said the next day that Hayes’ comments made it difficult for him to understand.
He wrote on his Truth Social account, “Hayes, a real loser, says he doesn’t represent his country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the team, and it’s too bad he’s in it.”
Hayes was not the only athlete to express dissatisfaction or face adverse reactions. At a news conference with athletes Friday, freestyle skier Chris Lillis said he was “heartbroken” by what’s happening in the U.S., citing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I think, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everyone’s rights and making sure we’re treating our citizens as well as anyone else with love and respect,” Lillis said. “I hope that when people see the athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that this is the America we are trying to represent.”
And American figure skater Amber Glenn said the LGBTQ+ community has faced difficult times during the Trump administration.
In addition to Paul, conservative figures who have criticized athletes on social media include former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, actor Rob Schneider and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — whom Trump has endorsed for the Florida gubernatorial race in November. And he was met with a barrage of strong reactions from ordinary Americans.
Glenn posted on Instagram that when asked how she felt she had received “a lot of hate/bullying just for using my voice.” She said she would start limiting her use of social media for her own well-being.
Responding to questions from The Associated Press, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement Sunday that it is aware of the increasing number of abusive and harmful messages toward athletes and is doing its best to remove content and report credible threats to law enforcement.
“The USOPC stands strongly with Team USA’s athletes and is committed to their well-being and safety on and off the field of play,” it said.
During the opening ceremony, Team USA athletes were cheered, but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, were shown on stadium screens waving American flags from the tribune.
In Milan, there have been several demonstrations against the local deployment of ICE agents – even after clarification that they were from an investigative unit completely separate from the enforcement unit at the forefront of immigration actions in the US.
