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Women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova has gained attention for continued comments about the latest US military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and its aftermath.
After voicing support for criminal sanctions against US oil companies trying to take oil from Venezuela and suggesting the recent US intervention was “looting” in a series of posts on Saturday, Navratilova took direct aim at President Donald Trump.
“He is completely insane. Not to mention this is completely illegal,” Navratilova wrote on X in response to a clip of Trump telling Pakinomist: “This incredible thing last night… We have to do it again. We can do it again too. No one can stop us.”
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Navratilova later responded to the clip again, writing: “He wants to be the king of the world!”
In another post, Navratilova doubled down on her claims that Trump is committing criminal acts with Venezuela’s intervention.
“Peace President my a–! Trump breaks more laws than all the previous presidents combined. A serial criminal on so many different fronts!” Navratilova wrote in a response to a New York Times editorial.
The tennis legend’s comments received mixed reactions on social media with many criticizing.
“Go back to playing and talking about games. You have no credibility as a political pundit. Sit down,” wrote one X user.
One user wrote: “You should stick to tennis as you have no clue about politics.”
Another user joked that Navratilova has Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
“TDS is strong with you. Keep talking about hitting a furry ball with a net,” the user wrote.
One user dismissed Navratilova’s claim that Trump’s strikes were illegal, pointing to the tennis star’s background in leaving the former Czechoslovakia to escape a totalitarian communist government.
“No it’s not lol,” the user wrote, referring to Navratilova’s ‘illegal’ claim. “It’s a shame you hate Trump more than you love your fellow man. Again why did you leave your country?”
Navratilova has said she left her homeland in 1975, citing her experience under Soviet rule and resenting the restrictions on personal freedoms.
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Many Venezuelans have celebrated the US seizure of Maduro, who also had limited personal liberties under his rule, as humanitarian concerns grew among the nation’s people. He is also viewed by the US and much of the world as an illegitimate leader due to suspicions about how the 2024 elections were conducted.
However, Navratilova has instead compared Trump to her home country’s authoritarian rule in the past, as seen in the tennis legend’s locked post on X.
“I lived in a totalitarian authoritarian country growing up and I will not vote for that now or ever,” she wrote in October 2024, referring to Trump.
Still, Navratilova has backed Trump’s stance on at least one major issue, protecting women’s sports and space from biological males, which has earned her praise and support from conservatives. Navratilova is considered an ally of conservative influencer Riley Gaines, XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey and has come to the defense of “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling over the issue of biological male transgenders invading women’s spaces.
Navratilova has also joined a coalition, along with Gaines, of athletes who have signed a letter condemning Iranian regime for his death sentence on boxing champion Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani in November.
Yet Navratilova has regularly voiced strong opposition to Trump and the Republicans in recent years on seemingly every other issue, including Venezuela.
On Saturday, Navratilova praised a post on X proposing the sanctions, writing “love it” in response to journalist Lauren Windsor’s post that read: “Any US oil company that expropriates oil from Venezuela should be sanctioned by the International Criminal Court.”
She later wrote: “Holding a country hostage while they plunder its natural resources. Next stop – either Greenland or Nigeria,” in response to a thread that included a report about Wall Street company officials in the financial, energy and defense sectors visiting Venezuela after the recent strikes.
Maduro, who was elected in 2013 after serving as Hugo Chavez’s vice president, faces charges of conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.
While several congressional Democrats have come out in force to condemn the operation to capture Maduro and his wife, some other Democrats have broken from the pack to applaud the action, including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.
Meanwhile, Venezuelans in Miami, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Madrid donned Venezuela’s national colors and waved flags hours after Trump announced Maduro and his wife had been flown out of the country following the overnight US military operation.
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In Miami, Venezuelans danced and cheered, and celebrations also took place outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. In Doral, Fla., revelers chanted “Liberty!” and draped Venezuelan flags over their shoulders.
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to Navratilova’s speaking engagement inbox to get a response to the social media criticism of her.
