The president of the United States, Donald Trump, determined to influence the organization of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, created on Tuesday a working group that he will preside, a measure that could generate friction with the local Democratic authorities.
In front of the cameras, Trump signed a document that establishes said work group and promised to “mobilize the entire federal government to ensure that the Olympic and Paralympic Games are safe, develop without setbacks and are a historical success.”
Several senior government officials and nearby advisors will participate in this group, including vice president, JD Vance.
“We will do our best so that these Olympic Games are safe, including the use of the National Guard and Military Personnel in active duty,” Trump anticipated.
The president ordered the National Guard in California to deploy in June, against the recommendation of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, something unusual. He said he sought to restore order in Los Angeles after protests against immigrant arrests by federal immigration authorities.
On Tuesday, Trump criticized the governor and the mayor of Los Angeles, also Democrat Karen Bass, whom she described as “uncompromising” and accused of poorly managing the response to January forest fires in that metropolis.
The president’s animosity towards the Democratic authorities of California has generated fears of friction in the organization of the Olympic Games.
That same day, no tension was perceived in the White House among Republican leader and Casey Wasserman, president of the Los Angeles 2028 Organizing Committee.
“He has supported and helped us at every moment, and we would not be here today,” Wasserman told him.
Los Angeles was chosen headquarters of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in September 2017, during Trump’s first mandate.
Wasserman announced that the Olympic flame will travel the 50 states of the United States and told the president that, if he wanted to carry the torch, it would be “more than welcome.”
It would not be the first time, because Trump wore the Olympic flame through the streets of New York City before the 2004 Athens Games.
Great fan of sports shows, Trump is going through his second term in coincidence with the organization of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, with the United States as host. This year, the country also housed the FIFA Club World Cup, extended to 32 teams. The president, who since January has taken a series of measures against transgender people, also assured Tuesday that “the United States will not allow men to steal trophies for women” during the 2028 Olympic Games.