The idea sounds outlandish if not downright impossible. Leaders at the World Anti-Doping Agency are considering adopting a rule that could bar President Donald Trump and all US government officials from attending major international events, even if they take place on American soil.
A few coming up are as big as they get: this summer's World Cup, the LA Olympics in 2028 and the Winter Games in Utah in 2034. This is not a fight of Trump’s choosing, but rather one being pursued by WADA itself, which has been the subject of bipartisan and virtually universal disapproval in Congress, in the Trump and Biden administrations and in the offices of the US Anti-Doping Agency for most of this decade.
The proposal, on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting of the WADA executive committee, is the latest and most extreme manoeuvre in a years-long exchange of rhetoric, threats and fighting between all parties. It stems from the US government's refusal to pay its annual WADA dues.
The US has held back a total of $7.3 million over 2024 and 2025 in protest of WADA's handling of a number of issues over the years, most recently, a case involving Chinese swimmers who were allowed to compete despite testing positive for a banned substance. WADA took Chinese regulators' word that the athletes had been accidentally contaminated.
WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald said the rule, if passed, would “not be applied retroactively, so World Cup, LA and SLC Games would not be covered”. However, the proposal copy does not include language to that effect.
Fitzgerald did not respond to a series of follow-up questions sent Monday, including one asking how a rule being considered for passage this year would not be applied retroactively to events that have not taken place. Fitzgerald did say last week that the final decision wasn't due until November, after the World Cup, though correspondence between WADA and European officials indicated that decision could come sooner.
What gives WADA the power to ban Trump? Part of sending teams to major international events, like the Olympics and the World Cup, requires everyone involved to pledge to follow WADA's rules, whether they're directly related to doping or to administrative issues, the likes of which the latest proposal covers.
Sports organisations, for instance the IOC and the governing bodies of individual sports, are considered “signatories” to the WADA code. Governments are tethered to WADA as part of an agreement they sign with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Like sports organisations, the UNESCO arrangement includes the governments agreeing to pay dues and follow WADA’s rules.
Could WADA really prevent Trump from attending an event in his own country? It's hard to see how. Rahul Gupta, the drug czar during the Biden administration who was every bit as critical of WADA as is his successor, Sara Carter, called the idea “ludicrous.” “That's the responsibility of the government, not WADA’s,” Gupta said. “It's clear that WADA attempting to propagate any rules-based system that interferes with a government, especially a host government, that would be a concern to any government.”
While Trump has not weighed in on this specifically, Carter, his drug czar, said the U.S. government “will continue to stand firm in our demand for accountability and transparency from WADA to ensure fair competition in sport”.
Also read: NDTL aska WADA to acquire Athlete Biological Passport
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