The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is attempting to put a new rule in place that would ban Donald Trump and all U.S. officials from ever attending any international sporting events, even those occurring on U.S. soil.
The rule change anti-American WADA officials are trying to push through comes just ahead of several major events that will be held in the U.S. including this year’s World Cup, the Olympics scheduled for Los Angeles in 2028, and the Olympics Winter Games set for 2034, the Associated Press reports.
The vindictive rule is just another salvo in the war of words between the international agency, which was founded in 1999, and the federal government and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. It is fight that has been going on for years, meaning that Donald Trump is not the sole target of the WADA’s ire.
American officials have been disputing the WADA’s rules and actions for years — even during the Biden administration — and the U.S. has refused to pay its membership dues since 2024. The back dues now total to $7.3 million, the AP added. The U.S. has been threatening to withhold dues since 2020 and finally acted on the threat in 2024.
At the heart of the disagreement is the case involving China’s Olympic swimming team, members of which were caught doping in 2024 but were allowed to compete at the Paris Games despite the violation.
At the time, Chinese Olympics officials claimed that their swimmers tested positive for banned substances because they ate “contaminated food.” The U.S. has disputed this claim ever since and has also attacked the WADA for allowing the Chinese to compete.
WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald told the AP that if the rule were to be implemented, it would not apply for the major games already planned to be held in the U.S.A., but the AP also noted that the rule proposal has no language to that effect in it anywhere.
Even Joe Biden’s drug czar, Rahul Gupta, has called the proposed rule “ludicrous.”
Gupta added that such a rule would endanger any major plans for an international sporting event and should worry every country, not just the U.S.
“It’s clear that WADA attempting to propagate any rules-based system that interferes with a government, especially a host government — that would be a concern to any government,” he said.
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R, TN) ripped the WAADA and even said its vindictive move is “proof” that the U.S.’s criticism of the agency is valid.
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