Former US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would not have imposed a boycott against the Beijing Winter Olympics, such as President Joe Biden announced.
In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump was asked if he would impose a diplomatic boycott on the 2022 Beijing Olympics and replied, “No, because I watched Jimmy Carter do it, and it was terrible. It was terrible. It hurts the athletes.”
“There are much more powerful things we can do than that, much, much more powerful things. That’s not a powerful thing. It almost makes us look like, I don’t know, sore losers,” he added.
Trump said he would instead like to see US athletes perform well and “win every single medal.”
The White House officially announced earlier this month that the US will not send government officials to the 2022 Winter Olympics due to China's human rights "atrocities".
Other countries followed suit, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
The US move came despite a recent effort to stabilize ties with China, with a video meeting last month between Biden and China's leader Xi Jinping.