The World Anti-Doping Agency is weighing a rule change that would bar Donald Trump and every U.S. government official from attending the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics — an event being held in his own country, paid for in part with hundreds of millions in federal dollars.

The reason: the U.S. government hasn’t paid its WADA dues since 2023, and the global drug-fighting watchdog is sick of it.

The proposal lands on the agenda for WADA’s executive committee meeting next Tuesday, according to correspondence obtained by the Associated Press between WADA and European officials. Two additional sources confirmed the agenda item to AP.

The unpaid tab is roughly $7.3 million — about $3.6 million from 2024 and $3.7 million from last year. WADA’s entire annual budget is $57.5 million. The U.S. government, under both Trump and Biden, has refused to pay up as a bipartisan protest over WADA’s handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication but were allowed to compete anyway.

WADA bought the Chinese doping regulator’s explanation that the athletes were contaminated by traces of the drug in a hotel kitchen. Some of those swimmers went on to compete at the Paris Olympics.

So the U.S. has a legitimate gripe. But WADA is now threatening to make it everyone’s problem.

The proposed rule would create a three-tiered sanctions system for countries that don’t pay their dues by January 31 of the year after they’re billed. The most extreme tier includes “government representatives being excluded from participation in major events such as World Championships and Olympic & Paralympic Games.”

That means Trump, J.D. Vance, and members of Congress — the same Congress that just approved hundreds of millions in funding for security and logistics for both the LA Olympics and this summer’s FIFA World Cup, which the U.S. is also hosting.

About that World Cup: the implications are hazy at best. WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald told AP the rule “would not apply retroactively” and therefore wouldn’t cover the World Cup or the LA Games. But when AP pressed him on how a rule that hasn’t been adopted yet could be applied “retroactively” to future events, Fitzgerald essentially repeated himself.

The draft proposal itself makes no mention of retroactivity.

WADA’s Foundation Board, which would make the final call, isn’t scheduled to meet until November. But WADA told European authorities the proposal “could be implemented without undue delay” and that the board could act via “circular or within the context of an extraordinary meeting” — bureaucrat-speak for “we can fast-track this if we want to.”

Let’s be honest about what this actually is: a $57.5 million Swiss foundation trying to tell the president of the United States he can’t attend an event inside his own borders.

Rahul Gupta, who led the charge to reject this same proposal back in 2024 when he sat on WADA’s executive committee as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, didn’t mince words. “I have never heard of a $50-million-budget Swiss foundation being able to enforce a rule to, for example, prevent the United States president from going anywhere,” Gupta told AP. “How are you going to enforce it? Are they going to post a red notice from Interpol? It’s ludicrous.”

The proposal was first floated in 2024, and the U.S. successfully lobbied to kill it. Since then, the U.S. has lost its seat on the executive committee, which makes round two considerably more dangerous.

Sara Carter, the current ONDCP director, said in a statement: “In spite of WADA’s increasing threats, we continue to stand firm in our demand for accountability and transparency from WADA to ensure fair competition in sport.”

The U.S. has been demanding that WADA submit to an independent audit. WADA has defended its existing auditing practices.

WADA called the AP’s reporting “entirely misleading” in a news release after the story published, which is a bold thing to say about a story based on documents WADA’s own officials wrote.

Representatives from the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee did not respond to AP’s emails asking how, exactly, anyone planned to enforce a ban on the president of the United States entering a stadium in Los Angeles.

The unpaid U.S. dues amount to roughly 6.3% of WADA’s annual budget.