Draped in a USA scarf, Second Lady Usha Vance led the US delegation for the opening ceremony of the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin, Italy this weekend. Vance entered the arena, clutching the hand of her 7-year-old son. The son looked glum while Vance flashed a big smile, apparently thrilled to be representing the Trump-Vance administration.
Then things got awkward. Politicians and organizers addressed the crowd with every speech driving home the message of the Games:
“Inclusion.”
Vance must have been squirming in her seat. Her husband Vice President JD Vance has been attacking inclusion–the ‘I” in DEI –for years. In 2024, then-Senator Vance led the Republican charge to introduce a bill called the “Dismantle DEI Act.” The senator even issued a statement to make sure everyone knew that he defined DEI as “a destructive ideology that breeds hatred and racial division.”
Now his wife was forced to listen to the Mayor of Turin rattle on about how sports is a means “to promote inclusion, openness and growth.” She must have wanted to puke.
And who do the Special Olympics want inclusion for? Their mission is to “end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities.” As Vance marched ahead of the U.S. delegation, did she consider how President Donald Trump loves to insult people by labeling them with a derogatory term for people who face intellectual challenges? Vance must know that in October, Trump reportedly referred to former Vice President Kamala Harris as “retarded.”
Special Olympics Board chair Timothy Shriver posted a response to that report on Facebook. He wrote: “Special Olympic athletes have led an effort to ask people to end the use of the R-word for a simple reason: It’s painful. It’s humiliating. It’s dehumanizing.”
Vance may have voiced disapproval in private, but she hasn’t said anything about the slurs in public. This raises the question: If Vance’s seven-year-old used that word on the playground, would she just nod and smile? Or would she explain to him that people with disabilities deserve support not slurs.
Founded by devout Democrats Sargent and Eunice (Kennedy) Shriver in 1968, the Special Olympics were built on the pillars of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The drumbeat grew so loud that at some point it seemed like the speakers were addressing an audience of one. Maybe they hoped that the event would turn the second lady into a brave ally and she would use her influence to halt the administration’s attacks on people with disabilities. Or maybe it was just one big troll.
Here are six possible trolls of the second lady from the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics.
1. The eight-piece band wore jackets that spelled out the word “kindness.” Was this a pointed response to Melania Trump’s infamous “I really don’t care, do U?” jacket from the first Trump administration? As ESPN reporter Jen Lada explained, the jackets were another reminder “of what the goal is from these world winter games. To spread kindness. To be kind. To recognize peoples’ differences and to celebrate them.”
2. A diverse dance troupe took the stage to deliver what the commentators described as “an emotional performance” that would “show why unity is so important in the world.” As America’s First Second Lady, Vance must have cringed through this call for global unity.
3. Next, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, President of the Games’ Local Organizing Committee, took the podium in a hot pink midi dress. Did this choice remind Vance of the Democratic Women’s Caucus donning pink at Trump’s joint session of Congress address last week?
4. In her speech, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo specifically thanked Vance for attending. Unfortunately, during the live ceremony, the closed captioner botched the name and “Usha Vance” became “Miss Lucia Vance.” (In all fairness, the games are in Italy.)
Still, when the video was posted to ESPN’s Youtube channel, the closed captioner corrected Vance’s first name, but botched the last so the president seemed to be welcoming “Miss Usha Van.”
5. Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s speech emphasized the importance of spreading “education and inclusion around the world.” Currently, the Trump-Vance administration is in court fighting to eliminate 90% of the budget of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) If they succeed, global programs like Inclusive Development Partners (IDP) which helps children with disabilities receive an education, will vanish.
In the United States, children with disabilities are also targeted to lose federal assistance. Budget proposals from House and Senate Republicans are looking to gut Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for disabled children in low-income families.
6. Dr. Timothy Shriver is not a medical doctor (although he’d probably make a better Secretary of Health and Human Services than his first cousin Bobby Kennedy, Jr.). Shriver has a PhD in education and has been steering the Special Olympics since 1996.
Shriver’s rousing speech described the gathering of athletes as its “own country”--one that’s “free of fear, free of contempt, free of exclusion.” He called for everyone to be treated with dignity, adding, “At these games, we don’t ask for pity for our athletes. We ask for a change of heart from the world.” He didn’t turn and add a pointed, “Mrs. Vance,” but it was implied.
The message of the ceremony could not be missed by anyone in the audience. Still, it’s possible that none of it got through to Vance. The second lady was never featured again on camera, even when she was singled out by name. This means it’s possible that after leading the delegation into the arena, Vance and her son just kept on marching… right out the arena door.
If she did make a hasty retreat, Vance should consider herself lucky. She and her young son were spared the horror of listening to repeated calls for “sowing seeds of love,” while creating “a fair society” and “a peaceful world.”
