US President Donald Trump reacted to the news that Vice President JD Vance was booed at the Winter Olympics in Milan with a surprising claim about his vice president.

Video footage from Friday’s opening ceremony showed Vance and his wife Usha receiving what an Australian announcer described as “a lot of boos” from the crowd.

Later that day, aboard Air Force One, a reporter asked Trump if he had heard about the booing, prompting a surprised look from the president.

President Donald Trump, as he heard the news that Vice President JD Vance had been booed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
President Donald Trump, as he heard the news that Vice President JD Vance had been booed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

“No, I didn’t see that,” Trump responded in a Forbes Breaking News video. “Is that true, is that true? It’s surprising, because people like it.”

That’s when Trump made his curious statement.

“Well, I mean he’s in a foreign country, to be fair. But, uh, they don’t boo him in this country.”

Vance has been booed in the United States on multiple occasions. He was booed at a firefighters union conference in Boston in 2024, during Trump’s presidential campaign. He was booed by protesters in Vermont when he traveled there with his family last March for a ski vacation. He was booed by the audience at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the same month. And he was seen being mercilessly booed and, yes, booed, in viral video clips from Washington, DC’s Union Station last August.