Only a fool who still believes the ‘tooth fairy’ is real would not have seen this one coming. The blowhard Donald Trump, ever-seeking style points and added glow to his faux-gold toilet seats- mentality has now gone all out. He has started to move on the City of Los Angeles’ invitation to host the 2028 Olympics as if it were he who was invited to accept that honor. But it wasn’t.
The city of Los Angeles, through its LA28 Los Angeles Organizing Committee, has signed a legally binding Host City contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that obligates Los Angeles to provide certain quality standards of infrastructure, environmental quality, human rights guarantees and other concerns. The City has the legal rights and responsibility to organize the Olympic Games in L.A., 2028. Of course, no one can guarantee there won’t be an L.A. earthquake to crash the big party and create unanticipated problems.
The U.S. government’s role in all this—by contract—is to mainly provide the maximum security needed to protect the visiting athletes and the international community, and to facilitate visa and travel document arrangements. But that is merely important support work on the Olympics, and Trump always thinks he’s the star of the show. So, this week, he just announced that he is the new chair of an Olympics Taskforce he just created to prepare for the Games, criticizing the current L.A. leadership and their work thus far, particularly Mayor Bass, whom he likes to denigrate by regularly calling her a D.E.I. mayor.
Though he and his administration had virtually nothing to do with L.A. securing the Olympics contract, he sounded as if he were now taking over the arrangements in his latest news conference announcing the new task force with himself in charge. He promised to assign as many federal troops as he deemed necessary in order to prepare for and to protect Olympic visitors, insulting Mayor Bass and the Olympic preparations already occurring in California.
But, though Donald Trump, personally, has many times broken contracts—for example, the six casino bankruptcies—stiffed many of the former contract holders he didn’t agree with, and summarily fired federal workers in spite of existing and current labor contracts, etc., neither he nor the federal government have the rights or the heft necessary to push L.A. out of the way for the Olympics. We do, however, expect him to try.
Through his latest executive order this week, Mr. Trump created a White House Task Force on the 2028 Summer Olympics. That Task Force will supposedly be chaired by Mr. Trump, with VP J.D. Vance and a new Executive Director to supposedly manage day-to-day operations.
On paper, the new task force is to coordinate with federal, state, and local partners to manage security, transportation, and entry/exit processes. That is, the task force is to streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media. That is the federal government’s task anyway, according to the Olympics contract signed with Los Angeles and California. Trump , however, just signaled in his latest news conference that he wants more authority and especially more recognition than that.
He belittled the current efforts being led by Mayor Bass and California authorities, saying that the “2028 Olympic Games will be a premier opportunity to showcase American exceptionalism and drive economic prosperity.”
The City of Los Angeles, as the official host city, is legally responsible for providing “enhanced services” during the Games, including greatly increased levels of police, fire, sanitation, and traffic control. The necessary reimbursements to the city for these services, is still in negotiations.
In spite of what President Trump has said, the bottom line is that the U.S. government does not have the legal right to unilaterally change the venue of the 2028 Olympic Games from Los Angeles to another U.S. location that Trump prefers, nor does it have the legal right to supplant Los Angeles’ authority to organize the games. A prolonged court fight over these issues, clearly a favorite tactic of Mr. Trump, would only interfere in the necessary preparations for the Olympic Games and provide an international blackeye for all concerned.
Trump and the U.S. government, at the end of it all, still will not gain the control and access Trump just demanded this week. However, we should all brace for impact from the Trump train coming. The emperor still wears no clothes, but he does have big feet.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
