Politics

Simone Biles takes apparent jab at Donald Trump: ‘I love my black job’

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on August 2, 2024

(PARIS) — The greatest gymnast of all time, Simone Biles, took an apparent jab at former President Donald Trump early Friday, tweeting, “I love my black job,” in response to a tweet about her winning the gold medal in the women’s individual all-around hours earlier.

Biles’ tweet came in response to one from Ricky Davila, a singer and fan of the gymnast, who tweeted, “Simone Biles being the GOAT, winning Gold medals and dominating gymnastics is her black job.”

Both comments came after Trump used the term “Black jobs” during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists Conference on Wednesday.

“I will tell you that coming, coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking Black jobs. You had the best–” Trump said, as ABC New’s Rachel Scott pointedly asked him, “What is a ‘Black job?'”

“A Black job is anybody that has a job. That’s what it is,” Trump said. “Anybody that has a job.”

The response generated audible laughs from the audience.

Biles bounced back after dropping out of the Tokyo Games to focus on her mental health to win gold in the individual all-around Thursday. She won the same title in Rio in 2016, and is the first gymnast to win the individual gold eight years apart. She already has two gold medals in Paris — including the team all-around win earlier in the week — and is favored to win more gold in the individual apparatus events.

Already acknowledged as the greatest of all time before Paris — not just due to her Olympic performances, but also her 23 world championship gold medals — Biles now holds six Olympics gold medals and nine medals total — the most of any American gymnast.

Biles’ comments on social media were likely colored by previous criticism from conservatives. In fact, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, criticized support for Biles dropping out of competition in Tokyo to focus on her mental health and deal with a condition known as “the twisties,” when a gymnast loses their spacial awareness during flips, putting them at serious risk for injury.

“What I find so weird about this … is that we’ve tried to turn a very tragic moment, Simone Biles quitting the Olympic team, into this act of heroism,” Vance told Fox News in 2021. “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.”

Biles has been targeted since Tokyo on social media for prioritizing her mental health. Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements and writings in relation to election interference in Georgia, called Biles a loser on social media after the gymnast was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2022.