President Trump rips Olympian Hess for comments on U.S. - ESPN

MILAN — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that it is hard to cheer for American Olympians who are speaking out against administration policies, calling one such critic «a real Loser» who perhaps should have stayed home.

It was the latest and most prominent example of U.S. Olympians at the Milan Cortina Games inviting online backlash with their words.

Reporters on Friday asked U.S. athletes at a news conference how they feel representing the country during the Trump administration's heighted immigration enforcement actions. Freestyle skier Hunter Hess replied that he had mixed emotions since he doesn't agree with the situation, and that he is in Milan competing on behalf of everyone who helped get him to The Games.

«If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it,» Hess said. «Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.»

Among those who piled on Hess were YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

«From all true Americans If you don't want to represent this country go live somewhere else,» he wrote on X, where he has 4.4 million followers. Minutes later, he was photographed sitting beside U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the U.S women's hockey game in Olympic host city Milan.

Trump said the next day that Hess' comments make it hard to root for him.

«Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn't represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the Team, and it's too bad he's on it,» he wrote on his Truth Social account.

Hess wasn't the only athlete voicing discontent — or facing blowback. At Friday's news conference with the athletes, freestyle skier Chris Lillis referenced Immigration and Customs