Vice President JD Vance’s massive motorcade at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics almost ruined an American athlete’s gold-medal dreams.
Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu nearly missed her Friday skate in the Milano skating area because the vice president’s massive motorcade was blocking the arena’s parking lot.
“We almost didn’t make it,” Liu’s coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, told the Washington Post.
Liu barely made it into her dress and onto the ice in time to perform her routine. She finished second in the women’s short program, just behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, helping give Team USA a two-point lead over Japan in the three-day event.
Vance and the U.S. delegation reportedly flew into Milan on multiple planes carrying staff, security, food, and vehicles.
The VP’s enormous motorcade features dozens of Chevy Suburbans that barely fit on the tiny streets of Milan. Video of the motorcade, taken on Friday by the Italian news outlet Local News, shows one of Vance’s cars nearly colliding with a vehicle bearing an Italian license plate.
The White House and representatives for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vance has already drawn controversy in Milan. On Thursday, he was resoundingly booed by Parade of Nations attendees when he and his wife, Usha Vance, were shown on the big screen.
The boos came in defiance of the International Olympic Committee, which begged fans to be nice to Vance ahead of Thursday’s Opening Ceremony.
Vance is representing the U.S. at a time when America’s popularity is tanking in Italy, thanks in no small part to the words and actions of the American vice president.
Last February, Vance scolded Italy and other European countries for “abandoning Democratic values.”
In the lead-up to the games, the Department of Homeland Security sparked a continental outcry when it confirmed that ICE agents would provide security at the Olympics. The administration has assured that ICE won’t be conducting the type of violent operations the world has seen it undertake in Minnesota.
Italians who have witnessed videos of ICE killing U.S. citizens, pepper-spraying protesters, and abducting children protested the announcement and demanded that Trump’s “thugs” be denied entry to their country.
Vance has vocally defended ICE agents, going so far as to say that the ICE agent who killed Renee Good has “absolute immunity” from any consequences (he later walked back that claim).
Vance has also justified the killing of two U.S. citizens by amplifying baseless descriptions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti as “domestic terrorists.”
Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, made clear he disapproves of ICE’s presence in his city, saying last week, “This is a militia that kills…They’re not welcome in Milan. Can’t we just say ‘no’ to Trump for once?”
Vance has attended Friday’s ice skating competition and Thursday’s Women’s Hockey Match between the United States and Czechia so far on his Olympic tour.
This isn’t the first time the vice president’s motorcade has honked its way into the national spotlight.
In October, Vance shut down a part of a California highway for a stunt military display. A 155-millimeter shell fired during a live demo rained shrapnel on Vance’s cars.
In November, a member of Vance’s motorcade was left in critical condition after he collided with a Highway Patrol SUV in Maryville, Tennessee.
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