LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump may have given his unequivocal support to Los Angeles’s bid for the 2024 Olympics but the tumultuous first few weeks of his presidency have dealt a blow to the city’s hopes of staging the games, analysts say.

Los Angeles and Paris are regarded as front-runners ahead of Budapest in the race for the Games, which will end at an International Olympic Committee meeting in Lima in September to choose the winner. 

Domestic politics could give an unwanted kick to all three.

Trump has repeatedly backed the LA 2024 campaign, even while Los Angeles’s Democrat Mayor Eric Garcetti, a key leader of the bid, has criticized his administration’s policies on immigration.

“I’ve actually spoken to the Olympic Committee in Europe. And they, I think, were very happy when they spoke to me,” Trump said earlier this month.

“They wanted to have an endorsement from me and I gave it to them very loud and clear. I would love to see the Olympics go to Los Angeles. I think that it would be terrific.”

However, since Trump’s phone call with IOC president Thomas Bach, his administration has been plunged into controversy over the sudden imposition of a travel ban on refugees and migrants from seven Muslim-majority nations deemed to be a security risk.

While the Trump travel ban was ultimately halted by a US federal court, the controversy has left LA 2024 dealing with a public relations problem at a time when it needs to win the hearts and minds of Olympics voters.

“I think what Trump has created has dealt a deathblow to the opportunity for Los Angeles to be the host for 2024,” said Derick Hulme, a political science professor at Michigan’s Alma College.

He questioned whether the IOC would be willing to choose Los Angeles if there were unknowns about the ability of all competitors to enter the United States freely.

“The IOC is a risk-averse body and is going to be very, very hesitant to award the Games to a country where it will have little confidence that all athletes will be able to attend the Games,” said Hulme, whose books include “The Political Olympics: Moscow, Afghanistan and the 1980 US boycott.”

“As long as Donald Trump is president, the US is effectively out of the running for the hosting of major sporting events. The US is too risky a choice for the big international federations to settle on.”

Other experts were more circumspect, noting that the IOC had recently awarded Olympics to China and Russia.