Black jobs swipe at Trump after Olympics gold
Simone Biles of Team United States reacts after competing on the vault during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Qualification on day two of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 28, 2024 in Paris, France.
Jamie Squire | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
American gymnast Simone Biles appeared to take a swipe at former President Donald Trump on Friday morning, tweeting “I love my black job” after winning her second individual all-around gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Biles’ post on the social media site X seemed to reference Trump’s recent controversial comments that immigrants are “taking Black jobs.”
The Republican presidential nominee had said, “They’re taking Black jobs now and it could be 18, it could be 19 and even 20 million people,” during his June 27 debate against President Joe Biden.
“They’re taking Black jobs, and they’re taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history,” Trump said.
Data does not support Trump’s claim that immigrants are “taking” jobs from American workers.
CNBC has requested comment from Trump’s campaign about Biles’ tweet.
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump answers questions during the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago, Illinois, on July 31, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski | Afp | Getty Images
Trump was asked on Wednesday to clarify what he meant by “Black jobs” in a question-and-answer session with three reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention.
“A Black job is anybody that has a job,” he said.
“That’s what it is. Anybody that has — they’re taking the employment away from Black people. They’re coming in, and they’re coming in, they’re invading.”
During the same session, Trump also questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ race, falsely suggesting that the de facto Democratic presidential nominee has not always presented herself as Black.
US’ Simone Biles poses with the gold medal during the podium ceremony for the artistic gymnastics women’s team final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on July 30, 2024.
Lionel Bonaventure | Afp | Getty Images
“She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black.”
Harris’ father, who is Black, is from Jamaica. Her late mother was from India. Harris attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., one of the most well-known historically Black universities.
Biles, who is widely seen as the greatest American gymnast of all time, won her second individual all-around gold medal in Paris on Thursday.
With nine Olympic medals, six of them gold, Biles is the most decorated U.S. gymnast in history.
She is also the first American to win the individual gold more than once, and the first Olympic gymnast ever to win two in non-consecutive Games.
Her success in her third Olympics is the culmination of a three-year-long comeback story.
Biles withdrew from the team final at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 after struggling with the “twisties” — which occur when a gymnast loses spatial awareness while in the air.
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Her withdrawal sparked a national conversation about mental health, but also drew criticism.
“America hates me. The world is going to hate me. I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now,” Biles said on a podcast in April, recalling how she felt after the 2021 Games.
One critic of Biles at the time was Sen. JD Vance, the Ohio Republican who is now Trump’s running mate.
Vance, who was running for the Senate in 2021, called Biles’ decision to withdraw her “weakest moment.”
“I think it reflects pretty poorly on our sort of therapeutic society that we try to praise people, not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments,” Vance said on Fox News that year.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
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