{"id":459559,"date":"2026-02-10T05:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T05:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/459559\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T05:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T05:34:10","slug":"trumps-immigration-agenda-dominates-opening-days-of-winter-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/459559\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s immigration agenda dominates opening days of Winter Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) \u2014 As the Winter Olympics opened in Milan, Vice President JD Vance<\/a> hailed the competition<\/a> as \u201cone of the few things that unites the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

That unity didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

The early days of the Milan Cortina Games<\/a> have been roiled by the tumultuous political debate in the U.S. American athletes have faced persistent questions about President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> aggressive immigration<\/a> enforcement agenda and their comfort in representing a country whose policies are increasingly controversial on the world stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously a lot going on that I\u2019m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren\u2019t,\u201d American freestyle skier Hunter Hess said as he spoke of the \u201cmixed emotions\u201d of representing the U.S. \u201cIf it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I\u2019m representing it. Just because I\u2019m wearing the flag doesn\u2019t mean I represent everything that\u2019s going on in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: When conflict meets competition: Trump\u2019s immigration agenda roils opening days of Winter Olympics\n <\/p>\n

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on President Trump criticizing an American Olympian for speaking out against his immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

That prompted a fast response<\/a> from Trump, who said on social media that Hess was a \u201creal loser\u201d who \u201cshouldn\u2019t have tried out for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery hard to root for someone like this,\u201d the president added.<\/p>\n

The criticism of an American athlete from a U.S. president was a sharp departure from the unifying, apolitical tones the White House typically strikes during the Olympics, highlighting how the tension over the enforcement of Trump\u2019s immigration policies has now bled into athletic competition. Other leading conservative voices, ranging from podcaster Megyn Kelly to a Republican candidate for governor in Florida, added to the critique of Hess, with some calling for him to be taken off the U.S. team. <\/p>\n

By Monday, other top athletes<\/a> who have previously found themselves in political controversy were rallying to Hess\u2019 defense. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another for all that\u2019s going on,\u201d said Chloe Kim, the two-time Olympic gold medalist whose parents are South Korean immigrants and who has faced racism throughout her career for her Asian heritage. <\/p>\n

After her silver-medal win in slopestyle, Eileen Gu, who was born in San Francisco and competes for China, said she had been in touch with Hess, who told her she was one of the few people who could relate to what he\u2019s going through.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who\u2019s been caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,\u201d said Gu, whose decision to compete for China drew sharp critiques. <\/p>\n

The Olympics are never walled off from politics<\/p>\n

The Olympics are never walled off from political and cultural debates. The raised fists<\/a> of Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Olympics remain one of the most powerful and enduring images of protest and resistance to racial injustice in the U.S. Since then, political commentary from athletes has become more commonplace, aided by social media platforms that allow competitors to share their real-time thoughts on everything from food and nutrition to news of the day. <\/p>\n

The comments from athletes in Italy are notable, however, because they\u2019re coming at the biggest global sporting event to occur since federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis<\/a> last month, reigniting a debate in the U.S. and abroad over Trump\u2019s hard-line immigration measures. <\/p>\n

Chris Lillis, another American freestyle skier, said he felt \u201cheartbroken about what\u2019s happening in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody\u2019s rights and making sure that we\u2019re treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that that\u2019s the America that we\u2019re trying to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin<\/a> quoted Nelson Mandela as she acknowledged \u201ca lot of hardship in the world globally, and there\u2019s a lot of heartbreak, there\u2019s a lot of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be tough to reconcile that when you\u2019re also competing for medals in an Olympic event,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really hoping to show up and represent my own values, values of inclusivity, values of diversity and kindness and sharing, tenacity, work ethic, showing up with my team every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the most part, athletes are largely engaging in political conversation during news conferences when they\u2019re specifically asked to respond to news events. At one such press event, American figure skater Amber Glenn, an outspoken LGBTQ+ rights activist, noted that the queer community is going through a \u201chard time\u201d under Trump. She later said she would step back from social media after receiving threats on the platform. <\/p>\n

Political controversy can put athletes at an uneasy intersection as they weigh whether to use their platforms to take a stance or avoid anything that might upset their fans or sponsors. During last month\u2019s Australian Open tennis tournament, American Amanda Anisimova said questions about U.S. politics were not \u201crelevant.\u201d Another American player, Taylor Fritz, said he felt that \u201cwhatever I say here is going to get put in a headline and it\u2019s going to get taken out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019d really rather not do something that\u2019s going to cause a big distraction for me in the middle of the tournament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Back at the Olympics, U.S. speedskater Casey Dawson, said \u201cwe definitely know the whole situation going on in the USA\u201d while noting that \u201cpolitics don\u2019t apply to us\u201d at the Games. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to skate,\u201d said Dawson, who finished eighth in the men\u2019s 5,000 meters on Sunday with Vance and his family in the stands. \u201cWe\u2019re here to skate. We\u2019re here to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spotlight on the U.S. that comes with global sports will only intensify in the coming years. The U.S., along with Canada and Mexico, will host this year\u2019s World Cup<\/a> and the 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles<\/a>. While there\u2019s little chance that political tensions in the U.S. will ease in that time, some hope that sports will serve as a way for people to process their disagreements and ultimately come together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this really magical thing that sport can do,\u201d said Ashleigh Huffman, who was the chief of sports diplomacy at the State Department during the Biden and first Trump administrations. \u201cIt can lower the temperature of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Sloan reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Howard Fendrich and Graham Dunbar in Milan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) \u2014 As the Winter Olympics opened in Milan, Vice President JD Vance hailed the competition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[190960,3842,192637,214532,214531,213604,12,212774,793,790,6009,214530,213457,96229,45567,111,200479,99,2072,800,45569,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-459559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","9":"tag-amanda-anisimova","10":"tag-amber-glenn","11":"tag-ashleigh-huffman","12":"tag-casey-dawson","13":"tag-chris-lillis","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-eileen-gu","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-jd-vance","19":"tag-john-carlos","20":"tag-mikaela-shiffrin","21":"tag-nelson-mandela","22":"tag-olympic-games","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-send-to-apple-news","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-taylor-fritz","27":"tag-washington-news","28":"tag-winter-olympic-games","29":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}