This event should not proceed.
It is essential for greater Los Angeles to stop all arrangements for hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics. We should hand over these Games to another global city that is better equipped to manage them.
Not because we lack appreciation for the Olympics. We are a city rich in Olympic history, marked by the 1932 and 1984 Games. Under normal circumstances, our unparalleled global connections, entertainment resources, and athletic facilities would make us an ideal host for what LA 28 chair Casey Wasserman calls “the largest peacetime gathering in the history of the world.”
However, times are no longer peaceful in Los Angeles.
This occasion has become too perilous for California. Hosting the Olympic Games requires collaboration with a chaotic U.S. administration — and its rights-violating security apparatus — as it actively wages war against our city and state.
“National Special Security Events,” like the Olympics, necessitate that host cities allow federal agencies to take charge during the Games. For the 2028 Olympics, an agreement that began last year puts the U.S. Secret Service in control of security, alongside the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
All these agencies are under President Donald Trump, who has initiated a war against California involving the deployment of troops and covert federal police in our communities. California leaders have justly called for the cessation of immigration raids and the withdrawal of troops. Yet, those demands contradict the Olympics agreement, which grants these agencies the authority to increase security personnel in Los Angeles.
‘Enforcement partners’
Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has directly linked the current federal presence in L.A. to the upcoming 2028 Olympics. He recently stated that Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, by supporting protesters rather than ICE agents, have compelled the feds to assert control over the city — and suggested they might do so again. “If this was a preview of their leadership ahead of next year’s World Cup games and the L.A. 2028 Olympics, we have bigger problems,” Duffy stated.
While this may seem like typical Trump rhetoric, California officials are actually citing the need to ensure a secure Olympics as a reason to collaborate with the very federal agencies that are currently assaulting the state.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, in his enthusiasm to proceed with the Games, resembles the British prisoner-of-war Colonel Nicholson from the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” who takes pride in constructing a railroad bridge that benefits his captors.
McDonnell often refers to ICE as “law enforcement partners,” despite their actions against the city he is committed to safeguarding. When pressed by the L.A. city council on why he continued to collaborate with ICE, McDonnell responded: “Without that partnership, we wouldn’t be able to go into the World Cup, the Olympics.”
This vulnerability illustrates how Trump can manipulate the Olympics against California.
Therefore, it is crucial that California removes the president’s leverage by pausing operations immediately, setting a clear deadline, and outlining demands: We will withdraw from these Olympics by Aug. 1 unless the Trump administration halts all immigration raids, withdraws all federal troops in L.A., releases all immigration detainees, endorses an independent prosecutor to investigate the raids, and reinstates all frozen federal funding for California.
Anything less, and we’re out.
Threat to democracy
Sports officials around the world would be outraged. However, if we forgo the Games, we could redirect our attention to the needs of our city. Longtime L.A. city administrator Rick Cole posed a critical question: “If we can’t pave our streets, repair our sidewalks, trim our trees, house our homeless, light our bridges, and fix our firetrucks, how can we host an Olympics in just three years?”
Unexpected expenditures from the Games could burden public budgets that are already facing deficits. Additionally, Trump, known for abandoning partners, could attempt to impose billions in federal security costs onto L.A.
Trump is also undermining the Games’ potential benefits. The Olympics can be profitable if people from around the world attend. Yet, Trump’s travel ban — combined with his administration’s willingness to detain and incarcerate tourists — will deter attendance. Some nations may even opt for a boycott.
The most significant threat posed by a Trump Olympics is to our democracy.
Trump has indicated his intention to leverage the Games to self-promote and solidify his authoritarian regime. We can expect to see Trump lighting the torch while seated among fellow autocrats — Hungary’s Orban, India’s Modi, and possibly even Putin.
Indeed, the 2028 Games may occur while Trump is campaigning for an unconstitutional third term as president. Tyrants historically have exploited the Olympics for such purposes. (Look up “Adolf Hitler” and “1936 Berlin Olympics.”)
Why should Californians invest our valuable time and resources into a fascist spectacle for our oppressor?
If the 2028 Olympics proceed, they will likely be wielded as a tool by Trump against us.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.
