‘The Trump Olympics’: president vows to host the ‘greatest games’ in LA, a city that’s felt his wrath

Donald Trump has never conceded his 2020 election defeat. But after lobbying hard for Los Angeles to host the 2028 summer Olympic Games during his first term, the US president has found at least one silver lining to what he calls his “circuitous route” back to the White House.

“I didn’t think I’d be here for the games in this capacity,” Trump mused, as he signed an executive order naming himself the chair of the White House’s LA Olympics taskforce. “But it worked out that way so I’m very happy about that.”

A non-consecutive second term returned Trump to the presidency just in time to oversee the biggest sporting event in the world. And with less than three years to go until the Olympic torch is lit in the city’s storied Coliseum, there is perhaps no bigger X factor looming over the games than the sitting US president.

Local officials and organizers have expressed nothing but confidence in the success of the upcoming games. But a decade after LA presented its cinematic pitch to the world – “follow the sun” to a vibrant host city that is “home to dreamers from every corner of the world” – observers and critics see ample reason to wonder whether the city’s grand global pursuit may crash headlong into Trump’s hardline America First agenda.

The list of “what ifs” is long: will athletes, coaches and officials obtain their visas in time? Will foreign tourists boycott the administration’s tariffs, its deportation campaign or its foreign policy? Will the White House leverage federal disaster aid in policy fights with the city and state’s progressive leaders? Will Trump send in the national guard – or the military – to suppress protests, as he did in June and suggested he might do again? Will immigration agents patrol outside of sports venues? Will broadcasters be pressured to censor negative reactions to Trump?

Or will the showman-in-chief play host to what the LA28 chair Casey Wasserman has promised will be the “greatest games the world has ever seen”?

Related: Los Angeles vowed to host the Olympics without breaking the bank and environment. Can it?

“We’ve never had a president who is more involved with sports than Donald Trump – never,” said Christine Brennan, a sports columnist for USA Today who has covered every summer and winter games since LA last hosted the Olympics in 1984. “Whatever we can imagine he wants to do, my guess is he’s thinking of doing it.”

Showman president

Trump, as the host country’s head of state, will formally proclaim open the LA Olympics – a role that, for most of his American predecessors, has been little more than ceremonial.

Ronald Reagan, the movie star turned president, dutifully opened the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles. Bill Clinton did the same for the 1996 summer games in Atlanta.

George Bush raised eyebrows in 2002, when, just months after September 11, he departed slightly from the Olympic Charter’s prescribed statement, and inserted a few patriotic words to open the winter games in Salt Lake City. Still, his presence largely followed precedent.

But Trump is not a president known for staying on the sidelines – or sticking to a script.

“Trump embraces sports like a popcorn lover on the AMC butter pump,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor of government and politics at Pacific University in Oregon who has written several books on the Olympics. “This is his thing and he is going to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Since taking office again in January, the president has already made several appearances at high profile sporting events, including the Super Bowl in New Orleans, and the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey, where he presented the gold trophy to Chelsea and then lingered awkwardly on stage for the celebratory photo-op. The trophy now sits in the Oval Office.

This summer, Trump was greeted with a mix of applause and boos at the US Open men’s final in New York, where broadcasters were pressured not to show dissent against the US president. Last weekend, he received a far warmer embrace by a rowdy crowd at the Ryder Cup, where he watched Europe defeat the US in the sport he loves most, golf.

The White House says Trump is determined to put on a “world-class event that successfully showcases American pride”.

“President Trump is not only a champion-level golfer, but a sports enthusiast who worked tirelessly to bring the 2028 Olympics to Los Angeles during his first term,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “Now, he is able to see it through.”

Not only is Trump prepared to work with anyone – even his Democratic adversaries in California – officials note, his signature legislation, which he’s called the “big beautiful bill”, included $1bn in security and planning for the games.

“President Trump has been incredibly supportive of the games since before the bid was signed, and he and his administration continue to offer their leadership and unwavering support as we prepare to deliver a successful and secure games that supports athletes, global and domestic visitors and our communities,” a spokesperson for the LA28 Olympic committee said in a statement.

Victoria Jackson, a sports historian at Arizona State University, said there are indeed incentives for the president to cooperate – chiefly that support from the federal government will be crucial to pulling off what he surely hopes will be “the Greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games of all time”.

The 2026 Fifa World Cup, co-hosted across several North American cities, including Los Angeles, offers a preview of how Trump and his administration might respond, she said: “We’ll learn a lot next summer.”

‘Hornet’s nest of trouble’

Domestic and global politics have always loomed over the games. But critics say Trump adds a volatile new dimension.

First off, there’s the timing. The 2028 Olympics will fall in the twilight of Trump’s second term, right in the heat of the US presidential election campaign. Trump will be 82 when it is his turn to open the games. And though he is constitutionally barred from serving a third term, he has at times suggested he might yet try to run again.

Then there is the political context. Dynamics could shift dramatically by 2028, but the fault lines between Trump and California are longstanding and deep. Tensions boiled over this summer, when Trump seized control of California’s national guard and deployed US Marines to Los Angeles in an attempt to suppress protests over his immigration crackdown in the city.

While local officials insist the 16-day sporting spectacle will be safe and celebratory, critics fear Trump’s administration could use the summer games to escalate immigration raids, quell protests and clear homeless encampments.

Eric Sheehan of the NOlympics LA coalition, which has been coordinating local advocacy since 2017, said they expect Trump will send troops into LA in the run-up to the games. “That is an image he would love,” he said. Trump has publicly suggested as much, saying in August: “We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our national guard or military.”

Security is a top concern. The 2028 Olympic Games will be the largest in modern history – what organizers have described as the “operational equivalent of seven Super Bowls a day for 30 days”. Last year, the LA Games were designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE), placing the US Secret Service in charge of security coordination for the LA28. Security planning is already underway, says the agency.

While the federal government plays a necessary role in providing security, Boykoff warns that the NSSE designation can help “till the political soil for the advancement of even more intensified militarization.

“Lacquer on top of that a highly erratic president who is deeply committed to leveraging sports events like the World Cup and the Olympics to his political advantage,” he said, “and you’ve got a real hornet’s nest of trouble for the local population.”

Among Angelenos’ worries: the sprawling deportation campaign that’s been at the heart of Trump’s second term and has swept up long-settled immigrants, lawful residents and even US citizens across the region. Meanwhile, the administration’s aggressive border policies have not only sparked anxieties among athletes and visitors over their visas, but also fears that they could get ensnared in domestic immigration enforcement operations.

New Jersey congresswoman Nellie Pou, a Democrat leading the Olympic oversight efforts in Congress, said at a hearing that she is concerned the “administration’s treatment of immigrants has sent a message to the world that: ‘You are not welcome here’”.

Trump’s immigration crackdown and his trade wars have already disrupted international tourism to the US. Stories of travelers denied entry or detained have fueled concerns about safety, security and long visa wait times. Citizens of 12 countries are currently not allowed to travel to the US at all, and there are restrictions on seven more.

A state department official said the US will allow into the country “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives”, traveling for the LA Games, but noted that “the exception does not apply to fans or spectators”.

Related: LA28 to break longstanding tradition with corporate venue names at Games

Still, a string of denials for international athletes seeking to compete or train in the US, including members of the Senegal women’s national basketball team and a Brazilian table tennis star who said he was told he was not eligible for a visa waiver because he had previously played in a tournament in Cuba, has done little to calm jitters.

Administration officials have downplayed concerns that Trump’s immigration and travel policies will affect the games.

“International visitors who legally come to the United States for the Olympics have nothing to worry about,”said DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is whether or not they are illegally in the US – full stop. Speculation to the contrary is ill-informed.”

Trump, speaking at the UN general assembly in New York earlier this month, said he hopes “countless people from all over the globe” will come to the US for the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games.

‘I have a lot at stake’

Since Trump’s return to power, Olympic organizers in LA have largely taken a diplomatic approach, heaping flattery – and even medals – on the famously mercurial president. It’s a dynamic that appears to be shaped, at least in part, by a shared sense of mutually assured destruction. Trump’s legacy – and, critics argue, his ego –may be the games’ best insurance policy.

“I have a lot at stake,” Trump said in August. “Because I’m the one that got the Olympics.”

Days before Trump was sworn in, Wasserman, the LA28 chair, made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump reportedly assured him that “these are America’s Olympics” and pledged to help “make them the greatest games”.

Wasserman, an entertainment executive and sports agent who has donated prolifically to Democratic candidates and causes, though more recently began making contributions to Republicans as well, has repeatedly and publicly thanked Trump for his support for the LA Games, which began even before the city won the bid.

At a White House event in August, where signage merged the presidential seal and the LA28 Olympic logo, Wasserman presented Trump with a box of medals from the 1984 Games. “Can I say I won them athletically?” Trump quipped.

At the ceremony, Trump formally established a White House taskforce to oversee federal preparations for the games, naming himself as chair. Longtime observers say the move is unusual – and reflects the president’s intense enthusiasm for hosting what he has described as a major “milestone” for the country – and his presidency. (He also chairs a similar White House task force for next year’s Fifa World Cup.)

Related: Trump announces he will chair White House taskforce for 2028 LA Olympics

The White House said the taskforce was established to “foster unprecedented federal coordination to ensure smooth logistics, safe practices, and [a] world-class event that successfully showcases American pride”.

Yet as the White House event unfolded, the president quickly departed from the sportsmanshiply spirit of the day and dove into politics. In his remarks, Trump called LA’s mayor, Karen Bass, “incompetent”; vowed his government would “not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics”; and said he would do “anything necessary” to keep the games safe, including deploying troops.

Bass, who faces re-election next year, has been careful to express appreciation for the federal government’s support for the games, all the while condemning his immigration raids and false statements around the January fires.

“We’ve had a productive working relationship with the federal government in the context of these games since Los Angeles was awarded the games in 2017,” a spokesperson for Bass’s office said in a statement. “We will continue preparing and working with public safety officials to ensure that the games are safe and secure, and that we present our city and our nation to the world in the best possible light.”

Outside experts say that continuing to strike that balance will not be easy.

“Trump is not afraid to threaten and even carry out threats that would make it more difficult and more expensive for California to host the games,” said Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economist who has written several books about the Olympics.

“Karen Bass and [California governor] Gavin Newsom are targets of his. He wants to make their lives more difficult, and he won’t hesitate to make the lives of Angelenos more difficult,” Zimbalist said. Newsom, who is term-limited and will leave office next year, is widely expected to run for president in 2028.

But there is another view: that Trump’s attachment to the Olympics – a coda to his presidency – will help guarantee its success.

“He’ll be sitting front and center,” Endeavor and TKO executive Mark Shapiro said, according to a recording of his remarks at the Morgan Stanley media conference earlier this year. “I’m a true believer that this will be his Olympics as much as anything else.” He suggested “the Trump Olympics” deserved a trademark.

Trump’s hostility toward the city has fueled growing calls for Los Angeles to withdraw from the 2028 Olympics.

“You don’t stand idly by as your sworn enemy assumes even more power to mess with you – you toss that problem elsewhere if you can,” LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano wrote in an op-ed urging the city to pull out.

But despite mounting outcry, there is little chance LA would – or could – withdraw.

“In Los Angeles, crime is down, homelessness is down and we are leading the fastest disaster recovery effort in state history,” Bass said in a recent statement, announcing the opening of ticket registration for the games. “LA will be ready for millions to see the best of our small businesses, diverse communities and so much more.”

Sam Levin contributed reporting