President Donald Trump called U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess “a real loser” Sunday after Hess said he had “mixed emotions” about representing the United States in this year’s Games.
Trump said Sunday on Truth Social that if Hess doesn’t want to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics, “he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it.”
“Very hard to root for someone like this,” Trump added.
Hess — who is competing in freestyle skiing — was asked at a news conference Friday how it feels to be representing the U.S. with “things going on back home.”
“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard,” he said. “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren’t.”
He continued: “I think for me, it’s more I’m representing my, like, friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. I just think if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it.”
“Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.,” he said.
NBC News reached out to a representative for Hess for comment.
The Trump administration has faced backlash both globally and at home for its immigration enforcement efforts and its handling of protests in Minnesota, where federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens last month.
Hess was not the only American athlete to comment on the political situation back home. His teammate Chris Lillis said at the same media event Friday that he felt “heartbroken about what’s happened in the United States.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that,” he told a reporter at the news conference. “I think that as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect, and I hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”