What did Donald Trump do today?

He booed an American athlete for exercising freedom of speech.

Hunter Hess is an American freestyle halfpipe skier at the Winter Olympics. Last week, he said this at a press availability:

It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't. I think for me, it's more I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S.

He later added:
 

Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S. I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that supported me getting here. I just think if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it.

 

 

Hess didn't mention any specific criticisms, but the Trump crackdown on immigrants, refugees, and any American who refuse to support those policies has been big news in Italy during the games. Vice-President JD Vance was brutally booed at the opening ceremonies, even as American athletes were given a warm welcome. And Italians have taken to the streets by the thousands to protest the still-unexplained presence of ICE agents at the Cortina games. (ICE has no jurisdiction in Italy and no reason for being part of the delegation.)

Hess is hardly the only Olympian who has mixed feelings about what American national symbols mean in the wider world. At the same press conference, his teammate Chris Lillis said he was "heartbroken" about what ICE is doing in and to the United States.

 

 

Trump is spending the day avoiding being booed at the Super Bowl, having claimed that California was "too far" from Washington for a person with a private jet. But he (or perhaps an anonymous staffer this will later be blamed on) did weigh in on the world of sports, calling Hess a "Loser" on his private social media network and lying about what Hess had actually said.

Trump and his political allies are openly trying to fight the popularity of American athletes—or at least the ones they think pose a political danger—through threats and intimidation. Figure skater Amber Glenn, who came out as bisexual years ago, has been chased off social media due to what she called a "scary amount of hate/threats" after she simply acknowledged that Trump was making it hard on the LGBTQ community.

Why does this matter?

• No matter how upset it makes Donald Trump, Americans still have the right to criticize their government.  

• There's thin-skinned, and then there's that reaction to someone saying that "there's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of."

• Name someone who's directly insulted more Americans, individually and as a nation, than Donald Trump.