Republicans Are Playing Fair Weather Fans. All Because Alysa Liu Won Gold
The United States finally has its first female figure skating gold medalist since 2002. 20-year-old Alysa Liu, oldest of five surrogate children to a Chinese immigrant father, dominated the ice at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. It’s a major win for the US, and currently, major Republicans are jumping on the bandwagon like they have cared about Liu from the beginning.
On X, Jack Posobiec posted, “Alysa Liu refused to skate for the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] after they persecuted her father[.] She is now a Gold Medalist for Team USA.”
As a part of its “naturalization project” to recruit overseas athletes in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, China attempted to persuade Liu to skate for them. Her father, however, would not be persuaded. In March 2022, it was revealed that Liu and her father had been targeted in November 2021 by spies who were allegedly under direction of the Chinese government to collect private information on Chinese political dissidents living in the United States.
And where were those like Posobiec back then? You guessed it, not caring.
You just know their Facebook accounts are posting “Team USA!!” unironically alongside photos of her right now
Alongside Posobiec, the official GOP accoount also made a post congratulating Liu on her win. Both posts were quick to gain traction, with many noting how fair weather it all seemed. After all, this is the anti-immigrant and anti-“woke” party, and everything about Liu seems to be the antithesis of their beliefs.
Said one user, “You would’ve called for her to be arrested when she was protesting the Palestinian genocide at UCLA. GFY.”
Another said, “They switched up on her so quick after she won gold.”
Indeed, Liu represents that kind of rebellious spirit the more conservative tend to look down on. Patriotism obviously plays a huge factor in this, but it is fascinating to see so many Republicans supporting her now that she’s won gold. Better late than never, I suppose, but we’d better see this energy for all immigrants. (We won’t.)
We also can’t forget that they had been dragging Liu and fellow figure skater Amber Glenn, who spoke out against President Donald Trump. It is certainly interesting that they have the privilege to pick and chooser which immigrants they can support when it benefits them.
And, sure. We should all be proud of Liu. She accomplished something amazing–not just for her, but for us as well. But I also think you don’t get the right to claim anything when your entire stance on immigration has been against it.
After winning gold in the figure skating team event, Glenn posted photos alongside her Liu with the caption “They hate to see two woke bitches winning.”
(featured image: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
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