Trump rips Olympian Hess for comments on U.S.

MILAN — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that it is hard to cheer for American Olympians who are speaking out against administration policies, calling one such critic “a real Loser” who perhaps should have stayed home.

It was the latest and most prominent example of U.S. Olympians at the Milan Cortina Games receiving online backlash for their words.

Reporters on Friday asked U.S. athletes at a news conference how they feel representing the country during the Trump administration’s heighted immigration enforcement actions. Freestyle skier Hunter Hess replied that he had mixed emotions because he doesn’t agree with the situation, and that he is in Milan competing on behalf of everyone who helped get him to the Games.

“If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” Hess said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

Among those who piled on Hess were YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

“From all true Americans If you don’t want to represent this country go live somewhere else,” he wrote on X, where he has 4.4 million followers. Minutes later, he was photographed sitting beside U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the U.S women’s hockey game in Olympic host city Milan.

Trump said the next day that Hess’ comments make it hard to root for him.

“Hess, 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 on it,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.

Hess wasn’t the only athlete voicing discontent — or facing blowback. At Friday’s news conference with the athletes, freestyle skier Chris Lillis referenced Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he’s “heartbroken” about what is happening in the U.S.

“I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect,” Lillis said. “I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”

And U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn said the LGBTQ+ community has had a hard time during the Trump administration.

In addition to Paul, conservative figures criticizing the 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 there was a flood of vitriol directed at them from ordinary Americans.

Glenn posted on Instagram that she had received “a scary amount of hate / threats for simply using my voice WHEN ASKED about how I feel.” She added that she will start limiting her social media use for her well-being.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee said in a statement Sunday that it is aware of an increasing number of abusive and harmful messages directed toward athletes and was doing its best to remove content and report credible threats to law enforcement.

“The USOPC stands firmly behind Team USA athletes and remains committed to their well-being and safety, both on and off the field of play,” it said.

During the opening ceremony, Team USA athletes were cheered on, but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, were shown on the stadium screens waving American flags from the tribune.

In Milan, several demonstrations have broken out against the against the local deployment of ICE agents — even after clarification that they are from an investigations unit that is completely separate from the enforcement unit at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S.