PARIS — Fresh off her second gold medal win at the Paris Olympics, U.S. gymnast Simone Biles seemed to take a dig at Donald Trump with a social media post declaring: “I love my black job.”
The former president and Republican candidate has prompted criticism — and internet memes — for asserting without evidence during the June 27 debate that immigrants coming into the United States illegally are “taking Black jobs.”
Asked this week to explain what counts as a Black job, Trump said: “A Black job is anybody that has a job.”
In the same interview, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump accused Vice President Harris of once hiding the Black heritage she has routinely highlighted in her career, escalating his attacks on the woman he is expected to face in November’s election.
Biles’s apparent dig Friday came in response to a post by Ricky Davila, a singer and songwriter, who had written: “Simone Biles being the GOAT, winning Gold medals and dominating gymnastics is her black job.”
I love my black job https://t.co/c5wPc6xOY3
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) August 2, 2024
Biles, the most decorated American gymnast in history, won her ninth Olympic medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around final Thursday.
Biles withdrew from competitions in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 for mental health reasons. While her withdrawal was widely applauded as courageous at the time, the public support prompted criticism from JD Vance (R-Ohio), now Trump’s running mate.
“I think it reflects pretty poorly on our sort of therapeutic society,” Vance said in comments that resurfaced this week.
Amy Wang contributed to this report.