Political Glance
A growing number of Olympic athletes competing for the U.S. in this month’s Winter Games are expressing discomfort with representing the country under President Trump’s administration, sparking intense pushback from the president’s supporters and Trump himself.
Trump attacked U.S. athlete Hunter Hess directly after Hess said he was conflicted about competing for Team USA given the country’s political climate.
“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. I think it’s a little hard,” Hess, a freestyle skier, told reporters during a recent press conference. “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
The president in a Truth Social post hours later called Hess a “real loser” and said it is “very hard to root for someone like this” when watching the games.
Hess’s comments came days after Amber Glenn, an American figure skater, decried the administration’s policies toward people in the LGBTQ community.
Last week, we learned of the decision of the Texas A&M University board of regents to end women’s and gender studies programs as well as the teaching of “divisive concepts” such as race. A&M was not the first university to do this. Florida’s New College made the move in 2023. Other red state legislatures have passed similar requirements and their public universities (in North Carolina, Ohio and Kansas) have followed suit.
At least a half-dozen top officials in the current Trump administration have connections to Jeffrey Epstein, according to an NBC News review of some of the over 3 million documents the Justice Department has released.
Former President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 14 interview that a video President Donald Trump posted that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, decried by many as racist, was part of a shameless "clown show."
President Donald Trump insisted in a Truth Social post on Feb. 13 that voter identification would be required for the upcoming midterm elections, even if it is not approved by Congress. He said he would "shortly" lay out the legal reasons for it "in the form of an Executive Order."
