This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Nermeen Shaikh, with Amy Goodman.
The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, was held on Friday. Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance attended the ceremony and were met with a chorus of boos when their image was displayed on screen. If you watched the ceremony on CBC — that’s the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — this is what you would have heard.
DEVIN HEROUX: In an individual sport. What an honor for her.
ADRIENNE ARSENAULT: There is the Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha. Ooh, those are not — uhh, those are a lot of boos for him, whistling, jeering, some applause.
AMY GOODMAN: But here in the United States, announcers on NBC made no reference to the boos, which also could not be heard on the U.S. broadcast. In a statement, an NBC Sports spokesperson denied editing any crowd audio of the opening ceremony.
In Milan, there have been multiple protests in recent days over the Trump administration’s decision to send U.S. ICE agents to provide security for the U.S. delegation. Some U.S. athletes have made comments about the political situation in the United States. This is U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess speaking at a press conference.
HUNTER HESS: I think it’s — it brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t. I think, for me, it’s more I’m representing my, like, friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. I just think if — if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S. So, yeah, I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here.
AMY GOODMAN: That was U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess. President Trump responded by calling him a “real loser.”
For more, we go to Jules Boykoff, author of six books on the Olympics, including Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics. He co-wrote a piece with Dave Zirin for The Nation, “Get Ready for This Year’s Undemocratic, Debt-Ridden, and Mobster-Infused Winter Olympics.” ”ICE thugs in the streets, Mafia meddling, and billions in waste — seems like the Games are off to a great start” was the subtitle. Jules Boykoff played for the U.S. under 23 men’s national soccer team between 1989 and ’91. His forthcoming memoir is titled Kicking. He’s joining us from Toronto.
So, Jules, that’s quite a title of your piece. Can you start off by talking about the boos of Vance, talking about why you titled your piece “Get Ready for This Year’s Undemocratic, Debt-Ridden, and Mobster-Infused Winter Olympics,” with thousands protesting ICE in the streets of Milan, Italy? And I’m not talking about frozen water.
JULES BOYKOFF: Yes, it’s quite remarkable to see booing at the opening ceremony of an Olympics, which is generally quite festive and fun. There were two outbursts of boos: one, as you just played, for JD Vance, when his photo flashed across the screen for all to see, but also when Israel walked out. So, there’s real global disgruntlement against the Trump administration and the Israeli government, and you saw that flare up.
You know, these Olympics in Milan were open to many different cities, and many cities said no. In fact, there were a number of referendums in cities across Europe where voters got the opportunity to say whether they wanted to host the Olympics. And in places like Innsbruck, which hosted the Olympics before, cities in Switzerland, and also here in Canada, in Calgary, voters said, “No, we don’t want these Olympics.” Well, in Milan, they didn’t get the opportunity to weigh in, and now they have these Games.
The International Olympic Committee is saying that they’ve put forth a slate of response. In response to all those people saying no, they have all these reforms that are supposedly going to fix the Olympic Games. But those responses are really only cosmetic in nature, and they don’t get at the core elements that really plague the Olympic Games, and that’s overspending, that’s the intensification of militarized policing, that’s greenwashing, that’s corruption, that’s the displacement of local populations. And you’re seeing all of those things in Milan here right now. And that’s why you saw 10,000 or so people rise up in the streets of Milan just to say no to these Games.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Jules, you know, this might be quite confounding for a lot of people, why it is — including myself — why it is that an immigration and customs government agency should be involved in security in a foreign country. What does — what does this agency have to do with U.S. officials attending an international event outside the country?
JULES BOYKOFF: Well, first of all, this is not uncommon. There was ICE in Paris at the last Olympics in 2024. And in fact, the United States has been sending security agents to Olympics for decades now. What’s different about this is that ICE is the sort of bête noire of the world. The mayor of Milan said it was a “militia that kills.” And so, this gave a foothold for a lot of people to sort of realize how the securitization of the Olympics takes many forms, and this is just one of them.
You’re also seeing the intensification of security in Italy itself. I mean, the Olympics provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity for national and local police forces to multiply and militarize their weapon stocks. They take advantage of that state of exception. And that’s exactly what they’re doing here in Italy.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Jules, also, you know, you point out in the Nation piece that Italy, like all the other countries that have hosted the Olympics, is using the Olympics to increase its security architecture and that that architecture will remain in place after the Olympics conclude. Could you give us some examples? What is that? What kind of security architecture?
JULES BOYKOFF: Absolutely. The Olympics have become a place to test new Olympics security measures that then stay in place after the Olympic Games. So, in Paris, for example, they used AI-powered video surveillance. They say it’s just for the Olympics, but extended well beyond the Olympics. And now in France, they’re trying to extend it even further, because they’re hosting the 2030 Games.
In Italy, it allows for the intrusion of military on the streets and in the skies. It allows for new forms of cybersecurity to be tested and surveillance drones that are purchased and aren’t put back in the box when the Games are over. They stay, and they become part of normalized policing in the wake of the Games. And that’s what has a lot of people in Italy quite concerned.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Jules Boykoff, we’re going to have to leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us. Jules Boykoff is the author of six books on the Olympics. We’ll link to your recent articles on Democracy Now!
