Sitting down with Fox News recently, Trump didn’t hold back as he ripped into the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony scene in which 18 performers posed behind a long table allegedly mimicking Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”.

Controversy over the “drag queen-themed woke parody”, as it has been called, has gained more and more momentum these last few days following an initial social media backlash on Friday night as the unprecedented opening ceremony took place. 

As the 18 performers, including three famed drag queens, posed behind the long table in front of the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop, one of the performers took up a position centre stage wearing a large silver headdress which many took as a purposeful parody of the halo depicted in paintings of Jesus.

With growing scrutiny, the International Olympic Committee issued an official apology on Sunday despite an ardent defence of France’s right to freedom of expression. 

Paris 2024 artistic director Thomas Jolly assured viewers that the particular scene was intended to depict a pagan feast linked to the gods of Olympus and was rather a celebration of diversity and a tribute to feasting.

The apology did not stop more and more voices from joining the initial criticism with celebrities, political figures and Catholic church leaders all adding fuel to the fire including more recently the 45th president of the United States and the current President of Türkiye.

“We won’t be having a Last Supper as portrayed the way they portrayed it the other night,” said Donald Trump while talking about the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

“I mean, they can do certain things. I thought it was terrible,” he told Fox News. “I’m very open-minded” he then proclaimed, “but I thought what they did was a disgrace.”

Trump was joined in his discontent by numerous others in the United States and further afield including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson who said it was “shocking and insulting,” Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini who branded it “sleazy” and Elon Musk who called it “extremely disrespectful.”

The President of Türkiye, Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile called it “immorality against all Christians” saying that he intended to call Pope Francis to discuss the controversy.

A scene during Friday’s showpiece event featured dancers and drag queens reminiscent of the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus is said to have shared with his apostles.

“I will call the pope as soon as possible to share with him the immorality committed against the Christian world and against all Christians,” Erdogan said at a meeting with his conservative AKP party. “The Olympic Games have been used as a tool of perversion that corrupts human nature.”

Erdogan, who has previously launched outspoken verbal attacks on Turkey’s LGBTQ community, was planning on attending the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony but was apparently dissuaded by his granddaughter and pulled out last minute.

“My 13-year-old granddaughter told me not to go, they would organise an LGBT event,” he said. “She showed me images on Instagram. Can you imagine that a sporting event supposed to unify people was opened with hostility towards the values of humankind?”

“What was done in Paris is a project aiming to drag humans down to a level lower than animals,” he continued.

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