Donald Trump has become one of the latest critics to slam a divisive moment at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.
The portion of the ceremony that has received some backlash, including from the former POTUS, involved a tableau of drag queens, which critics believed was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
Per Deadline, Trump was asked for his thoughts on the opening ceremony while speaking with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday’s (July 29) installment of The Ingraham Angle.
“I thought that the opening ceremony was a disgrace, actually,” he shared. “I thought it was a disgrace.”
Ingraham described the spectacle as “the mocking of The Last Supper,” noting that “Catholics and Christians across the globe are outraged.”
Trump added, “I mean they can do certain things. I thought it was terrible.”
Ingraham asked, “Can you say, at the next Olympics, if you’re president… you’ll have enough influence on the organizers that we won’t be insulting Christians?”
In response, Trump said that they “won’t be having a Last Supper as portrayed the way they portrayed it the other night.”
Donald Trump on the Olympics: “I thought the opening ceremony was a disgrace” pic.twitter.com/D7RFvFGVm1
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 30, 2024
“I just think — look, I’m for everybody. I’m very open-minded. You understand me,” he told Ingraham. “You know me better than most people know me. I’m very open-minded, but I thought what they did was a disgrace.”
Others offended by the moment include Full House alum Candace Cameron Bure, who took to social media to air her grievances.
“The Olympic Games have always brought me so much joy. It’s the best of the best athletes in the world competing for the title,” she shared. “So to watch such an incredible and wonderful event that’s gonna take place over the next two weeks and see the opening ceremonies completely blaspheme and mock the Christian faith with their interpretation of the Last Supper was disgusting.”
As noted by Deadline, the opening ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, insisted to French TV station BFMTV that Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting “was not [his] inspiration,” ultimately concluding that “the idea was to depict a big pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus, and thus the Olympics.”
According to the Associated Press, Olympics spokesperson Anne Descamps was asked to address the backlash on Sunday (July 28) during an International Olympic Committee news conference.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” Descamps said, per AP. “On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance. Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
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