Before the show tonight, there were protests on the streets of Milan as hundreds of people, mostly students according to reports, voiced their unhappiness at the presence of American ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in Italy.

Our correspondent Elisabetta Galla was at the protests today and passed on the following information:

Many were protesting about the social issues in Milan, such as rising rent costs and how spending money on an Olympic Games was not the right choice right now. Others were upset about the environmental impact of all the new construction that has gone on, particularly in Cortina. There were also protesters about Isreal being at the Games and not being banned like Russia. Around 10,000 protesters from all across Italy are expected in Milan tomorrow, but tonight, in front of the stadium, Galla reports a totally different atmosphere with many happy people from Milan who are proud of hosting the Olympics.

The US ambassador to Italy, Tilman J. Fertitta, recently said that the ICE officers would be deployed “only in an advisory and intelligence capacity, without patrolling or enforcement measures.”

This is likely in reference to the Homeland Security Investigations unit, which is a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes. It frequently sends officers to events like the Olympics to help with security, and they are completely seperate from those currently at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US. However, as the protests show, any ICE presence in the country has increased the tension.

US vice president JD Vance and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be at the opening ceremony tonight, and Vance met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earlier on Friday. Meloni said sport and religion were “values that keep together Italy and the US, Europe and the US, Western civilisation.”

President Donald Trump has shared a video of activist Laura Loomer asking CNN lead anchor Jake Tapper to apologize. Loomer claimed that fake news via CNN led to his attempted assassination.

On February 6, Donald Trump shared the video of Laura Loomer questioning CNN’s Washington lead anchor, Jake Tapper. The post did not include any caption. In the video, Loomer was seen saying:

“Have some courage for once, apologize for all of your fake news at CNN that has led to this intensive assassination of President Trump. Jake, shameful behavior from CNN. You guys have blood on your hands. You have blood on your hands.”

Loomer added:

“Jake, when are you going to apologize to the American people for lying about President Trump for years? When are you going to call out Joe Biden for saying that it’s time to put President Trump in a bullseye? Come on, you guys talking so much. Sh*tty.”

Loomer was seemingly referring to the two assassination attempts of the current President during the 2024 Presidential election promotions. In July 2024, the Republican president, who was then the Republican nominee, survived a shooting attempt in Pennsylvania. He was at the spot as part of a rally ahead of the elections. Two months later, in September 2024, Trump survived another assassination attempt while playing golf at his club in Florida.

Laura Loomer defends Donald Trump after the President shares alleged racist video of the Obamas

President Trump faced immense criticism after allegedly sharing a controversial clip where multiple US leaders were depicted as animals. The 62-second clip featured former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michele Obama as monkeys. The video, shared on February 6 through the President’s official handle on TruthSocial, faced major backlash for being allegedly racist towards the Obamas.

The video was later removed from the account. A staff member from the White House mentioned that the video was “erroneously” shared from the account. Further, multiple Republican leaders also demanded that Trump apologize for the video, including Senator Tim Scott, who is a Black man.

Speaking about the video, Laura Loomer staunchly defended the President, claiming he did “nothing wrong.” In a February 6 post, Laura Loomer wrote:

“DONALD TRUMP DID NOTHING WRONG! @LoomerUnleashed has the full video that features the Obamas as monkeys. Spoiler Alert: Every single Deep State official is featured as an animal in this full video because Washington DC is a ZOO! The fake news media and RINOs like @votetimscott are lying. They are deliberately not showing you the full video because they want to pretend like Trump is racist against black people. The reality is, nobody has done more for black people than President Trump.”

Further, Laura Loomer also claims the President does not write his own posts and his staff compose them for him. She wrote in another X post:

“President Trump doesn’t post on his own social media accounts. His staff posts for him. He dictates the text on the long posts, and then they type it. For the memes and photos, those are posted by staff. I have spent enough time with President Trump to know he doesn’t type the posts himself.”

Barack and Michelle Obama have yet to comment on the video. President Trump has also not made any public statements about the same.