CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — There was only one person in the crowd at a luge event for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games Monday night who did not watch any of the runs.
French artist Marc Ahr focused on the spectators to capture their reactions as their national teams triumphed or fell short, and on the beauty of the mountains.
Calling himself the “unofficial painter of the Games,” this is Ahr's 17th Olympics. He started in Milan to paint the opening ceremony, hockey and a city panorama, then traveled to Cortina to see luge, women's Alpine skiing and curling. He worked quickly Monday in Cortina, using a black pen to draw the entire scene during the women’s singles luge event.
“I don’t really care if they go fast or not fast,” he said as luge athletes hurtled down the icy track. “What’s important is, emotion of people.”
He drew groups of people watching the screen displaying results and cheering, kids playing in the snow, fans dancing with the Olympic mascot, Tina, and Italian parents comforting their child. Ahr even danced with Tina and drew that, too.
Many people approached Ahr to see what he was up to, especially when they noticed he looked their way as he sketched. He offered to add their names next to their likeness.
For Isabel Hernandez of Mexico, Ahr drew Mexico’s flag so she would be recognizable. For a German fan, he drew their face paint.
“I also draw, so it’s nice to see people doing it for events like this,” Hernandez said. “It’s something that I will share with my friends. And people probably won’t believe me, but it’s fun to know that I have this memory of it.”
Bette Wiley, Cheryl Ann Husby and Cynthia Brictson stood together with their arms over each other’s shoulders while Ahr put them into the scene. Brictson said she loved it.
Explaining why, she said, “Have you ever been standing in the middle of the Dolomites and had a man sketch you? It doesn’t get any more unique than that.”
When Ahr finished for the night, he finally looked at the track in time to see a luger. He added a directional arrow to the track he had drawn in black pen.
Ahr had been paying so little attention that he thought athletes went the other way around. Later, he would draw the winner and use watercolors to complete the artwork. He sells his pieces online and at the Olympics.
Ahr does like the athletes, too. In fact, he paints many of their portraits after the Games are over. But during the Games he is happiest interacting with the spectators and soaking up their good energy.
“I use my talent to make people happy," he said. "Why not? This is why I am happy to do it.”
AP Winter Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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French artist Marc Ahr displays his artwork after drawing the scene at the women’s singles luge event, during the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
French artist Marc Ahr draws the scene at the women’s singles luge event, during the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
NEW YORK (AP) — This is not the run-up to the midterm elections that Republicans wanted.
A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict.
The war in Iran was largely unpopular even before an American fighter jet was shot down in Iran, a development that dominated headlines on Friday and contradicted Trump’s claim that Tehran's military capabilities have been all but destroyed. One crew member has been rescued.
Earlier in the week, the Republican president offered little clarity to a nation eager for answers during a prime-time address from the White House, his first since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago, simultaneously suggesting that the war was ending and expanding.
“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”
Trump's comments come roughly six months before voters across the nation begin to cast ballots in elections that will decide control of Congress and key governorships for Trump’s final two years in office. For now, Republicans, who control all branches of government in Washington, are bracing for a painful political backlash.
“You’re looking at an ugly November,” warned veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. “At a point in time when we need every break possible to hold the House and Senate, our edge is being chipped away.”
It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the political landscape has shifted.
At this time last year, many Republican leaders believed there was a path to preserve their narrow House majority and easily hold the Senate. Now they privately concede that the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate.
Republicans are also struggling to coalesce around a clear midterm message on Iran.
The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates over the last month. The leaders of the party's campaign committees responsible for the House and Senate declined interview requests. Many vulnerable Republican candidates sidestep the issue, unwilling to defend or challenge Trump publicly.
The president remains deeply popular with Republican voters, and he has vocal supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“That was the best speech I could’ve hoped for,” he wrote on social media after Trump's address on Wednesday evening. Graham said Trump “gave the American people a clear and coherent pathway forward.”
Trump made little effort to sell the conflict to Americans before the initial attack. Five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Thousands more troops have converged on the region, and the Pentagon requested $200 billion in new funding.
The Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil, remains closed. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. was $4.08 on Thursday, according to AAA, almost a full dollar higher than on President Joe Biden's last day in office.
On Wednesday, Trump insisted that gas prices would fall quickly once the war concluded but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited skeptical U.S. allies to do it themselves.
He insisted that the war would be worth it.
“This is a true investment in your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said. “When it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once among Trump's most vocal allies in Congress, lashed out against his Iran policy.
“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” she wrote on social media. “Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans.”
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. military action in Iran has “gone too far,” according to AP-NORC polling from March. Roughly a third approve of how he’s handling Iran overall.
The possibility of sending U.S. forces into Iran also appears politically unpalatable.
About 6 in 10 adults are “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to deploying U.S. troops on the ground to fight Iran. That includes about half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 favor deploying troops.
At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have remained consistently weak. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of how he’s handling the presidency, roughly in line with how it’s been throughout his second term.
Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, a senior aide in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledged that Trump has not received the polling bump in this war that Bush got after invading Iraq.
Bush, of course, worked to build public backing for the Iraq War before going in. Immediately after the 2003 invasion, Bush's popularity soared, as did the stock market.
Public sentiment and the economy soured only after the conflict stretched on. It ultimately spanned more than eight years, spawning a generation of anti-war Republicans — and sowing the seeds of Trump's “America First” foreign policy.
“My hope is that the Trump experience is the exact opposite of the Bush experience,” Fleischer said.
He said Trump must win the war decisively and quickly to avoid a further backlash, saying there could be a “very significant political upside if things end well, oil comes down and markets rally.”
Fleischer added that Trump's actions will matter much more than his words.
“Ultimately, he is not going to get judged on his persuasion or his explanations or his assertions, he’s going to get judged on results,” he said.
Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
In this image made with a long exposure, President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
