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President Donald Trump blasted the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as “a disgrace” over its apparent mocking of Christianity that featured drag queens reenacting a scene from Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper.”
Trump expressed the concerns during an interview on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday.
“I thought that the opening ceremony was a disgrace, actually,” Trump stated. “I thought it was a disgrace.”
Trump also noted that the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles won’t include activities like those in Paris if he is elected in November.
“We won’t be having a Last Supper as portrayed the way they portrayed it the other night,” he explained.
“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.”
Trump wasn’t the only conservative who criticized the opening ceremony. House Speaker Mike Johnson posted his concerns on X shortly after the event.
“Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” Johnson wrote.
“The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail. ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ (John 1:5)” he added.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who was criticized over a conservative commencement speech in May, also addressed the controversy.
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting,” he wrote, quoting the New Testament passage from Galatians 6:7-8.
The official Olympic Games X account claimed that the scene was not a mockery of “The Last Supper” but represented an interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus.
Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps also apologized on Sunday to anyone offended by the performance.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps stated during a press conference.
“We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry,” she added.
