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- International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach expressed confidence in President-elect Donald Trump's support for the 2028 LA Summer Games.
- Trump previously supported the Games and claimed credit for securing them and the 2026 World Cup.
- Monica Crowley was nominated as chief of protocol, overseeing major U.S. events, including the Olympics.
SALT LAKE CITY — There's no worries about the next U.S. president backing the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
That was the message from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach recently, when he was asked about engaging President-elect Donald Trump in the next Summer Games. Bach's final term as the world's Olympic leader will end in June, but he did not rule out a visit to the White House once Trump takes office.
Whether that happens is up to the organizers of the LA Games and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, but if there's a meeting with Trump, "Of course, the IOC would be at their side," Bach told reporters last Thursday following three days of IOC Executive Committee meetings.
Trump, who was president when the IOC awarded Los Angeles a third Olympics in 2017, has already "repeatedly declared his support for the Games, which we never had any doubt (about) because he has declared this support from the very beginning," Bach said.
"So at this time, we are very confident and relaxed," he concluded.
A day earlier, Trump announced he was nominating a former Fox News contributor, Monica Crowley, to serve as chief of protocol at the State Department. In that role, she would be his administration's representative for major events in the United States, including the 2028 Summer Games.
Waiting for her will be a $3.2 billion request for federal public transportation funding from Los Angeles officials.
Crowley, who was the U.S. Treasury's assistant secretary for public affairs during Trump's first term, did an "incredible job," the president-elect said in a statement announcing her nomination, adding that in her new role, she "will be an extraordinary Representative of our Country."
But it will be Trump who'll have a role in the opening ceremonies of the LA Games as well as at the 2026 World Cup that the U.S. is cohosting with Canada and Mexico. Trump has claimed credit for securing both international events, telling "Let's Go" podcast host Bill Belichick in November, "The World Cup and the Olympics, I was responsible for getting both of them, actually."
Bach apparently wasn't always so comfortable with Trump. In 2017, Bach had what longtime sportswriter Alan Abrahamson described as a "tumultuous and all but disastrous" meeting with Trump in the White House as the IOC was considering a dual award of the 2024 Summer Games to Paris, with 2028 going to Los Angeles.
Abrahamson and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, reported that after leaving the meeting with the then-U.S. president, Bach was overheard saying, "Pray for our world," during a cellphone call.
Trump's second term as president will end before Utah hosts its next Olympics, the 2034 Winter Games.
