Should the US Be Prevented from Competing in the Winter Olympics?
In early 1980, President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics in response to the Soviet Union’s illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Afghanistan. Carter argued that the United States would not send a team unless Soviet troops withdrew within a month, and he favored relocating or canceling the Games.
Carter expressed his position in letters and in interviews. Subsequently, the U.S. Olympic Committee voted to boycott, a decision Carter confirmed on March 21, 1980. Despite international divisions, he later lamented the outcome, noting that athletes lost their chance at glory.
Though I am not directly arguing that the International Olympic Committee – the non-governmental sports’ governing body of the modern Olympic Games – ban the United States from competition, many of the conditions that compelled the U.S. not to participate in 1980 exist today regarding this country’s foreign policy actions under the Trump regime.
Since Donald Trump took over the Oval Office in 2017 and returning in 2025, certain images and actions stand out in my mind among his virtual fire hose of cruel and destructive lies and policies.
In Trump’s first term, I still visual the tragic images of immigrant children locked tightly in chain-linked cages separated from their parents on Trump’s order; his inhuman mockery of a reporter with a disability; and Trump literally shoving aside the Prime Minister of Montenegro during a NATO Summit photo opp.
During the first year of his second term, what most stands out is Trump’s militarization of the streets of some of the largest Democratic cities in the nation; the single and double bomb strikes upon small boats in the Caribbean without due process or proof of criminality; the invasion of Venezuela to abduct its president and first lady without Congressional authority or sanctions in international law; and his treats to invade other countries including Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland—the later which he has threatened to subdue and annex.
Since his first term in office and with increased rapidity and higher levels of threat, Trump said he wants Greenland for our national security to guard against Russia and China’s influence and menace in the Arctic.
By threatening Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, Trump has, in fact, aided and abetted especially Russia by taking a bulldozer to the NATO Alliance like he has done to the East Wing of the White House. The only difference is that he intends to build something to replace the former East Wing.
With a greatly battered NATO, Russia will now feel even more emboldened than it already had been under the Trump regime to gobble up Ukraine and continue its compulsive quest, under Vladimir Putin, to reconstitute the former Russian Empire.
Trump’s aim in achieving the presidency was never to serve the people of the United States. Trump’s purpose has always been to further enrich and empower Donald John Trump.
Most likely because of his unlimited sense of entitlement and privilege stemming from his upbringing and his rampant malignant narcissistic sociopathic personality, Trump often states the silent part out loud concerning his actual motives.
No, Donald Trump does not want to annex Greenland into the larger United States as its 51st state for reasons of “national security.” We know this from a message he sent on January 17, 2026, to the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS,” complained Trump in the message, “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper’ for the US.”
In response, Støre explained that an independent committee rather than the Norwegian government, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October to Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Trump continued his rationale: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” he added and questioned “why do they [Denmark] have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.”
Trump ended with more of his infamous lies: “I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.”
Well, actually, Trump did all he could to destroy this historic successful alliance, and NATO came to the United States’ defense by sending its militaries to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq as required under the terms of Article V of the NATO treaty following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Støre stood up to Trump: “Threats have no place among allies. Norway’s position is firm: Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Norway fully supports the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he wrote on X. “There is broad agreement in NATO on the need to strengthen security in the Arctic, including in Greenland.”
Adding to his threat, Trump warned that he would single-handedly impose an additional 10% tariff on goods entering the United States from eight NATO countries beginning in February if they oppose his proposed takeover. He threatened to raise the tariff to 25% by June. These countries are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland.
He justifies his imposition of tariffs on several 1977 U.S. laws together titled the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). There is no actual “international economic emergency” that justifies the sweeping tariffs on imported goods nor are there any unfair trade deficits and national security threats.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Antonio Costa released a statement on Jan. 17 saying “Territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law” and adding that the EU “stands in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland.”
Trump’s proposed theft of Greenland merely represents his vanity project as did his hostile incursion into Venezuela. There are no verifiable imminent threats from Russia and China around Greenland.
Trump is smashing our alliances. He is killing our democracy. He is turning the United States into a world-wide pariah and as the biggest supporter of state-sponsored terrorism. He must be impeached, convicted, and incarcerated while we still have a country.
Regarding kicking the United States out of this year’s Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, while my hope is that our brilliant athletes will be able to compete, the issue should at least be debated throughout the world to place the current U.S. on an equal footing with other international rogue and lawless nations.
