Trump appoints task force to ensure ‘safe, ‘ LA Olympics

United States President Donald Trump established a task force on the 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles that he said would ensure the event is “safe, seamless and historically successful”.

The 2028 games will be the first Olympics to be hosted by the US since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“The LA Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America. It’s going to be incredible. It’s so exciting,” Trump said on Tuesday as he signed an executive order at the White House establishing the task force.

The White House did not immediately release the text of the order or details about the task force’s work.

At the event, Trump praised Gene Sykes, chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) board of directors, for the USOPC’s move to effectively bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics,” Trump said.
He questioned why he did not hear applause from the room when he praised Sykes for this, and then received some claps from some people in the room.

Trump “considers it a great honour to oversee this global sporting spectacle”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, calling sport one of the president’s “greatest passions”.