President Trump tore into Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess on Truth Social Sunday morning after the 27-year-old Olympian told reporters he carries "mixed emotions" about wearing the American flag at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy.

"U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn't represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the Team, and it's too bad he's on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

The presidential rebuke followed a Friday press conference — held before the opening ceremonies — where Hess and teammate Chris Lillis fielded questions about representing the country during the Trump administration, the New York Post reported. Hess, a two-time X Games bronze medalist from Bend, Oregon, and a fixture on the U.S. national team since 2017, didn't hold back.

"It brings up mixed emotions to represent the US right now. 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. Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the US."

Read that last line again. The man put on the uniform, flew to Italy on Team USA's dime, and then announced that the flag on his jacket is basically a wardrobe choice — not a commitment.

The privilege of the platform

There's a particular kind of entitlement required to accept every benefit of representing your country — the training pipeline, the national team infrastructure, the Olympic stage itself — and then use that stage to distance yourself from the nation that built it. Nobody drafted Hunter Hess. He tried out. He competed for the spot. He earned it, presumably with pride. The "mixed emotions" arrived only once the cameras turned on.

Lillis, his teammate, struck a similar tone at the same press conference:

"I'm heartbroken about what's happening in the United States. I think that as a country we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we are treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect. I hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that that's the America that we're trying to represent."

The framing is always the same. Dissent dressed up as higher patriotism. The suggestion that loving your country means publicly agonizing over it at a press conference in a foreign nation, as though the rest of us, the ones who cheer without caveats, simply haven't thought hard enough about it.

The backlash built fast

By Saturday, the response was rolling. Mike Eruzione — the captain of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" U.S. men's hockey team — posted on X:

"Hunter Hess US snowboarder saying he doesn't represent his country but his family and friends. Then don't put on the USA uniform maybe just put for family and friends some athletes just don't get it."

Eruzione later deleted the post, and he did get Hess's sport wrong — Hess is a freestyle skier, not a snowboarder. But the core point landed. If the uniform means nothing beyond personal branding, why wear it at all?

Katie Miller, a Trump ally and wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller, put it more directly on social media Saturday: "If you can't say you love America while competing on behalf of our nation then you shouldn't be at the Olympics."

White House chief of protocol Monica Crowley reposted the president and added her own assessment on X: "Represent America with pride or GTFO."

Former Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner — the vault silver medalist from the Tokyo Games — posted on Instagram in what appeared to be a response to the controversy:

"Was always proud to represent America and wear our flag. I will never take for granted the opportunity I had to compete on Team USA."

No hedging. No asterisks. No "mixed emotions." Just gratitude for the opportunity. The contrast wrote itself.

A pattern that keeps repeating

Hess wasn't alone at these Games. U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn — who on Sunday became the first out LGBTQ woman to skate at an Olympic Games — also criticized the Trump administration, particularly over immigration enforcement. She later posted on Instagram that she had received "a scary amount of hate / threats for simply using my voice WHEN ASKED about how I feel," and said she would begin limiting her social media use for her well-being. British-American skier Gus Kenworthy also reportedly criticized the administration.

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee responded Sunday with a statement saying it was aware of "an increasing number of abusive and harmful messages directed toward athletes" and was working to remove content and report credible threats to law enforcement. The USOPC added that it "stands firmly behind Team USA athletes and remains committed to their well-being and safety, both on and off the field of play."

Threats are wrong — full stop. Nobody should face genuine danger for stating an opinion. But there's a difference between condemning threats and pretending that the backlash itself is illegitimate. These athletes made public political statements on an international stage. The public responded. That's not abuse. That's the conversation they started.

And notice the familiar feedback loop: athlete makes political statement, audience pushes back, institution frames the pushback as the problem, and the original statement escapes scrutiny entirely. The USOPC's job is athlete safety, not reputation management for political commentary. When the committee "stands firmly behind" athletes without drawing any distinction between threats and criticism, it conflates the two — and that conflation is doing real work.

The Monday walkback

By Monday, Hess posted a response to Trump on Instagram:

"I love my country. There is so much that is great about America, but there are always things that could be better. One of the many things that makes this country so amazing is that we have the right and the freedom to point that out. The best part of the Olympics is that it brings people together, and when so many of us are divided we need that more than ever. I cannot wait to represent Team USA next week when I compete."

It's a softer tone — considerably softer than "just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the US." The first-person patriotism of Monday's post lives in a different universe than Friday's press conference posture. Whether that shift reflects genuine reflection or a PR team earning its keep, readers can judge for themselves.

But the walkback reveals something the original comments tried to obscure. Hess knows what the flag means. He knows representing the country carries weight. He said so himself on Monday. Which means Friday's performance wasn't confusion — it was a choice. A choice to use the Olympic platform for a political statement, made with the assumption that the usual institutional shields would absorb any fallout.

This time, the president of the United States was the fallout.

What the Olympics are supposed to be

The Games exist because nations send their best to compete under their flag. That's the deal. You train for years, you qualify, you represent your country — not your personal political preferences, not your social media brand, not a curated version of America that meets your approval. The whole thing.

Mike Eruzione understood that in 1980, when a group of college kids beat the Soviet Union, and the entire country wept. MyKayla Skinner understood it when she stood on the podium in Tokyo. Millions of Americans who will never sniff an Olympic roster understand it every time they watch the opening ceremonies.

Hunter Hess has a competition next week. He'll wear the stars and stripes when he drops into the halfpipe. Whether he wears them with pride or with "mixed emotions" is between him and the country he claims to love.

The country will be watching.