With the Paris Olympics coming to an end in a spectacular closing ceremony on Sunday night, Donald Trump had something else on his mind: himself.
The former president specifically posted on his Truth Social platform to take credit for the fact that the next Summer Games will take place in Los Angeles. “As President-Elect, I worked with the Olympic Organizing Committee of Los Angeles in getting the 2028 Olympics to come to the United States,” he wrote. “There was tremendous competition from other countries.”
In November 2016, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles’ then-Mayor Eric Garcetti said Trump planned to support the city’s bid to host its third Olympics. At the time, L.A. was competing with Paris and Budapest for the 2024 Games, though Budapest eventually withdrew its bid. The International Olympic Committee in 2017 confirmed the 2024 event would be hosted by Paris—which the French wanted in part because it last hosted the games exactly a century earlier, in 1924—while 2028 would go to Los Angeles.
ADVERTISEMENT
“President Obama refused to speak to the International Olympic Committee (perhaps because of a previous rejection by them of a proposal personally made by him!), which needed the enthusiastic support and approval of the U.S. - Without which they would not have chosen our Country,” Trump wrote in his post, referring to the unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Games to be held in Chicago that Obama had supported.
“I gave them what they wanted to hear, and got the job done!” Trump continued. “It was my great honor to do so. Hopefully I will be President, and our Country will have reached new (and record!) levels of success. SEE YOU IN 2028. Thank you!”
Trump’s braggadocious post at the end of this year’s Games came after he attacked the opening ceremony as a “disgrace.” The former president made the comment in a Fox News interview in which he spoke about a section of the ceremony featuring drag performers that some Christians said had mocked Da Vinci’s The Last Supper (but which was actually intended to reference Greek mythology).
“I thought it was terrible,” Trump said last month. Asked what will happen at the 2028 Games if he is president, he answered: “We won’t be having a ‘Last Supper’ as portrayed the way they portrayed it the other night.”
