Simone Biles of Team USA reacts after competing on the vault during the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Qualification on day two of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Bercy Arena in Paris on July 28, 2024.
Jamie Squire | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
American gymnast Simone Biles appeared to hit out at former President Donald Trump on Friday morning, tweeting “I love my dirty job” after winning it. second individual gold medal in all competitions at the Paris Olympics.
Biles’ post on social media platform X appeared to refer to Trump’s recent controversial comments that immigrants are “taking Black jobs.”
The Republican presidential candidate had said, “They’re taking Black jobs now and it could be 18, it could be 19 or even 20 million people,” during his June 27 debate against President Joe Biden.
“They’re taking Black jobs, and 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.
The evidence does not support Trump’s claim that immigrants are “taking” jobs away from American workers.
CNBC has sought comment from the Trump campaign about Biles’ tweet.
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers questions during the National Association of Black Journalists annual conference in Chicago on July 31, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski Afp | Getty Images
Trump was asked Wednesday to clarify what he meant by “Black jobs” in a Q&A session with three reporters at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.
“Black work is anyone who has a job,” he said.
“That’s it. Whoever has — takes the labor away from black people. They come in, and they come in, they break in.”
During the same meeting, Trump also questioned the race of Vice President Kamala Harris, falsely implying that the de facto Democratic presidential nominee has not always presented herself as Black.
Simone Biles poses with her gold medal during the podium ceremony at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris on July 30, 2024.
Lionel Bonaventure | Afp | Getty Images
“He’s always been of Indian heritage and he’s only promoted Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was Black until a few years ago when she happened to be 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 famous historically black universities.
Biles, widely regarded as the greatest American gymnast of all time, won her second all-around individual gold medal in Paris on Thursday.
With nine Olympic medals, six of them gold, Biles is the most decorated US athlete in history.
She is also the first American woman to win individual gold more than once and the first Olympian ever to win two in non-consecutive Games.
Her success at her third Olympics is the culmination of a three-year comeback story.
Biles withdrew from the team final at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after struggling with “convolutions,” which occur when an athlete loses spatial awareness while in the air.
Her retirement sparked a national conversation about mental health, as well pulled review.
“America hates me. The world will hate me. I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now.” Biles said on a podcast in Aprilrecalling how he felt after the 2021 Games.
A critic of Biles at the time was Senator J.
Vance, who is running for Senate in 2021, called Biles’ decision to withdraw her “weakest moment.”
“I think it doesn’t reflect too badly on our kind 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 told Fox News that year.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the US broadcast rights holder for all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
