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Donald Trump touted himself as an “open-minded” individual before ripping into the Paris Olympics opening ceremony for being a “disgrace”, following the conservative criticism of an artistic sketch performance at the event.
Sitting down with Fox Newsfollowing the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony in Paris on Friday, Trump delivered his own thoughts and opinions on a scene that many had interpreted as being a play on Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous The Last Supper painting.
"I’m very open-minded, but I thought what they did was a disgrace," Trump told Fox News.
"We won’t be having a Last Supper as portrayed the way they portrayed it the other night," he added, referring to the anticipated 2028 Olympics to be held in Los Angeles.
"I mean, they can do certain things. I thought it was terrible," Trump said. "Look, I’m for everybody. I’m very open-minded... but I thought what they did was a disgrace."
While Christian groups and conservative pundits raised their dismay with the sketch, Paris 2024 artistic director Thomas Jolly said the scene had not been inspired by The Last Supper, and was instead depicting a pagan feast linked to the gods of Olympus in order to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.
The former president is the latest conservative figures to lash out at the performance, with his son Donald Trump Jr reposting a picture of the performance and stating, “They’re not even pretending anymore.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also posted on X that the sketch was a “mockery” and was “shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games”.
Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini branded the scene insulting and “sleazy,” adding: “Opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians across the world was a really bad start.”
Others, such as Elon Musk, called it “extremely disrespectful to Christians,” while Piers Morgan also posted that it was a “drag queen mockery” and was an “appalling decision”.
The sketch included drag performers from Drag Race France, including the show’s host, Nicky Doll, who defended the production on her Instagram Stories.
“It was my absolute honor to perform in front of billions of people around the world, and celebrate our Olympians,” Doll wrote on Sunday, them reported. “And remember, to the ones that had their feathers ruffled seeing queerness on their screen: WE AIN’T GOING NOWHERE.”
Paris Olympics officials have apologized to those who took offense at the performance.
“We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles so we gave a very committed message,” Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said. “The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible.
“Naturally, we had to take into account the international community. Having said that – it is a French ceremony for the French Games – so we trusted our artistic director. We have freedom of expression in France and we wanted to protect it.”
Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference: “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance.
“We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are really sorry.”
Jolly also added that the idea of the performance was to spotlight “inclusion” and “diversity.”
“In France, we have artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country.”
