Welcome to an Olympic Games where the U.S. brand on the world stage is fundamentally different, and darker, compared with the scintillating Paris Summer Games just two years ago. "It's a confusing time to be wearing the stars and stripes," said U.S. cross-country skier Ben Ogden at a press conference Thursday, adding there are "aspects of being American I'm not proud of."
There's talk in press conferences with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the U.S. delegation could face boos and jeers during the Milan Cortina opening ceremony, with Vice President Vance in the stands. There are protests in Milan and across Italy against the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents helping provide security for the Winter Games.
The shift in mood is dramatic. When U.S. athletes gathered in Paris in the summer of 2024, their country was widely seen as a defender of democracy and global trade, a counterweight to authoritarian governments in China and Russia.
In the year since taking office, President Trump has threatened the territorial sovereignty of longtime allies, hit European trading partners with punitive tariffs, and withdrawn military support from Ukraine.
"This is a really significant moment in the structure of the international order, the United States presence in it, the kind of face the United States wishes to present," said David Goldblatt, who wrote a history of the Olympic Games.
Politics often frame Olympic Games. This year the wild card is the U.S.
Goldblatt told NPR it's common for political and diplomatic tensions to frame the Olympic Games. At the Beijing Winter Games four years ago, China's president Xi Jinping appeared at the opening ceremony alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
But this year it's the U.S. sparking anxiety in European capitals, and Goldblatt said its possible that anger over Trump's policies and rhetoric could surface as athletes compete.
"The Olympics might be a little glimpse of what it actually means to make such a kind of radical nativist, aggressive, more isolationist great power version of America. It may not prove terribly popular," he said.
The U.S. remains a cultural superpower. American brands and media figures are visible everywhere in Milan. U.S. pop star Mariah Carey will perform at the opening ceremony. But many people here in Milan say they now view America's role in the world with deep concern.
"The perception of America has changed, it has been changing, not only mine but my classmates, people I talk to," said Bruna Scanziani, 18, an Italian college student who joined an anti-ICE protest in one of Milan's central squares.
It's normal for U.S. Homeland Security units to be present at a big international event like the Milan Cortina Games. Tattoni Francesco, a protester who lives just outside Milan said what's changed is the way people like himself view the U.S., especially after watching the violence in Minneapolis on their TV screens.
"I don't like what's happening with ICE, I don't want them to come here in Italy," Tattoni said. "I'm worried because it seems a civil war is brewing in America and that's a catastrophe for the entire world."
U.S. athletes speak out as concern grows about LA Summer Games
A growing number of U.S. athletes are also speaking out against actions of their government back home as aggressive immigration raids continue in Minnesota.
"For me it's obviously confusing," said Zak Ketterson, a cross-country skier who grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, where ICE agents last month killed two U.S. civilians. "I'm not representing all those bad people, I'm representing all the good people," Ketterson said Thursday.
Concerns about the U.S. are so high that at a meeting in Milan this week of the International Olympic Committee, organizers of the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles scheduled for 2028 found it necessary to offer reassurances.
"We will welcome the world into a safe and secure environment," said Casey Wasserman, head of the LA Games, during a meeting of the IOC.
At a moment when the U.S. has imposed strict travel bans on dozens of countries, when National Guard troops and ICE agents have deployed in American cities, including Los Angeles, Wasserman promised his city will feel inviting and fun.
"Walk down any street in LA and you'll hear dozens of languages and you'll see the faces of every nation," he said.
But Wasserman's statement comes at a time when the Trump administration is openly hostile to diversity and globalism as civic values. Trump is also promising to deport a million people a year from the U.S., including immigrants with legal status.
The head of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, was asked about tensions between the U.S. and other nations. "I think anything that's distracting from these Games is sad, right?" she said.
Coventry added that she hopes the opening ceremony will take place on Friday without political statements against any nation. "When that opening ceremony happens, suddenly the world remembers the magic and the spirit that the games have."
The U.S. image and the public mood toward America will get another big test at these Winter Games when the U.S. men's and women's hockey teams face teams from Denmark and Canada. Their games come at a time when the Trump administration has challenged the territorial sovereignty of both those nations.
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