This article was originally published by LAist on Aug 5, 2025.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to form a security task force for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and threatened to again deploy the military and National Guard.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military,” Trump said.
The executive order mobilizes agencies across the federal government to prepare for the mega-event, and names Trump as chair of the task force. Trump’s tax bill signed last month includes $1 billion for security, planning and other costs related to the Olympic Games.
The move comes at a time of extraordinary tension between Trump and local officials, who have repeatedly railed against the presence of masked federal agents on the streets of L.A. and surrounding cities since immigration enforcement picked up in June.
The Secret Service will be the lead security agency for the Games, which were designated a “national special security event” last year. That means the federal agency will steer the security plan and coordinate with state and local law enforcement.
“The security planning for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a huge undertaking that will require close coordination between law enforcement and public safety partners at all levels,” Brian Lewin with the Secret Service field office said in a statement last year.
What does this mean?
Jules Boykoff, a professor of political science at Pacific University who has studied recent Olympics extensively, said that designating the Games a “national security special event” gives the federal government wide latitude.
“I expect that we will see President Trump flexing like that more and more, the closer that we get to the Olympic Games and also next summer’s FIFA Men’s World Cup of Soccer,” he said.
The Secret Service is under the Department of Homeland Security — the same agency L.A. and surrounding city officials are currently challenging in a lawsuit. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has also advanced plans to ban federal agents from covering their faces.
Local officials and their staffs will have to work with the Trump administration to pull off the Olympics — a dynamic that has led some to speculate if L.A. will be ready for the Games come 2028.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told LAist that President Trump and the federal government should work with local law enforcement agencies and let them lead on safety, pointing out Pasadena hosts the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade every year.
“I’m primarily concerned that the president doesn’t understand the level of preparation and coordination that’s needed,” Gordo said.
Zev Yaroslavsky, who was on the city council when it negotiated the 1984 Olympic Games, said he thought the $1 billion the federal government had set aside for security was unlikely to be enough.
“ Security at the Olympic Games has become one of the major expenditures of staging the games,” he said.
Yaroslavsky said he doesn’t see anything wrong with establishing a task force as long as it’s not “a political cudgel with which to beat up on L.A. or on California or on the Olympic festival itself.”
Trump on L.A.
At the press conference announcing the task force, Trump referenced the recent Los Angeles fires, saying he discussed them with LA28 President Casey Wasserman, who was also on the stage.
“L.A.’s a little bit different place than it was when selected,” Trump said. “ We’re gonna bring it back stronger than ever.”
He went on to attack Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, calling her “incompetent” and criticizing the speed in which the city is issuing rebuilding permits.
Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, said in a statement that the office had a productive working relationship with the federal government since L.A. was awarded the Games in 2017.
“We will continue preparing with all partners to host the best Games in history – Games that will benefit the entire nation for decades to come,” Seidl continued.
What else happened?
During the news conference, Trump also celebrated the recent move by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee banning transgender women from women’s sports.
Wasserman said the Trump administration has offered “extraordinary” support to Olympic and Paralympic organizers — and that recent federal funding for security is critical to the Games’ success.
“ Our Games plan is near final,” he said. “ And now, with the creation of this task force, we’ve unlocked the opportunity to level up our planning and deliver the largest and yes, greatest, Games for our nation ever.”
Boykoff, at Pacific University, said he was struck by how chummy the LA28 head and Donald Trump appeared to be.
“ (LA28 has) been conspicuously quiet when it comes to the ICE raids – the brutality of the ICE raids, the intensity of the ICE raids,” he said. “So what we saw today was fairly much in alignment with that silence.”
Before the press conference ended, Wasserman presented Trump with a full set of Olympic medals from the 1984 L.A. Olympics.