Security shake-up: Trump to sign order for LA 2028 Olympics task force? Know all about it

US President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Tuesday (August 5) to create a task force for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, which will take place in Los Angeles during his administration. “During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, adding that the president would work to make the event “the most exciting and memorable in history.”

“The President considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” according to her statement on Monday (August 4).

The executive order establishing the task force was first reported by news agency Reuters. Trump has long been a vocal supporter of major global sporting events set to take place in the US under his presidency, praising both the Olympics and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “I got the World Cup and I have the Olympics and I did it,” Trump said at an event in Iowa in July.

Trump enlisted a similar task force earlier this year for the US, Canada and Mexico that will host the FIFA World Cup next year, naming Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — a president's strongest supporter — to be its director.

What will the Olympics task force do?

That task force was brought in to coordinate agencies and departments across the federal government to help put on and host the World Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, a standalone tournament that had taken place earlier in the year. Both the Olympics and the World Cup are likely to attract large crowds of spectators — along with a lot of international visitors — posing logistical and security issues.

Some critics of the Trump administration are worried that his push to clamp down on undocumented immigration and limit travel from certain countries might make it harder to host those sporting events. Trump has vowed that he will make travel and visa access easier for World Cup teams and fans.

The president has consistently attended high-profile sporting events since his return to office, including the Super Bowl, Daytona 500, a UFC bout, the NCAA men's wrestling championships and the FIFA Club World Cup final, which was hosted in New Jersey. And he often weighs in sports-world controversies. Trump blasted the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Olympics in Paris as “a disgrace” over a performance that some viewers believed to be a depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” even though organisers denied there was a religious reference.