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Tennis great Martina Navratilova says she would never have defected from Czechoslovakia as a teenager had she known Donald Trump would end up as President.

Well, sure, and I would never have set my heart on following North Melbourne as a kid had I known the Kangas would win just 16 games between 2020 and 2024.

We all have regrets.

On trans issues and fairness in women's sport i agree with Martina Navratilova. On her claim that America is not a democracy just because Donald Trump is President, I thinks she's off her rocker. https://t.co/QzkWifNZN0

— Martin in Monmouthshire (@MartinMonmouth1) June 18, 2025

Navratilova’s Defection from Communist Czechoslovakia

Navratilova defected to the US in 1975 over concerns that returning to her homeland meant giving up personal freedom while enduring constant surveillance.

After losing in the US Open semifinals, the then 18-year-old sought and gained political asylum – fleeing the tightly controlled communist state where phone calls were tapped, mail was read, and permits were required to travel from one district to another.

The fallout was immediate.

She was denounced by the Czechoslovak government, stripped of citizenship, and cut off from her family.

It’s fair to say she’s enjoyed a pretty good life since then.

Living Under Trump Totalitarianism

But Navratilova now claims none of it was worth enduring the totalitarian regime of Donald J Trump.

She told the BBC…

“If I were now still in that same position [as in 1975] and I had to go live somewhere, it would not be America, because it’s not a democracy at the moment.”

In Navratilova’s world, a former reality TV star tweeting mean things is equivalent – no, worse – than a Soviet-backed regime that crushed political dissent, imprisoned writers, and turned neighbour against neighbour through the state surveillance.

One wonders if Martina’s memories of the old country are coloured by nostalgia for government cheese and standing in line for toilet paper.

Or perhaps she just really misses the soothing sound of…

Radio Free Europe crackling in the background as she quietly questioned whether she’d disappear for daring to speak her mind.

Olympic-Level Mental Gymnastics

I know Martina Navratilova is a tennis legend, but comparing America unfavourably to communist-run Czechoslovakia of the 1970s is Olympic-level gymnastics.

Under Trump, people like Navratilova are not only free to criticise the government – they are handed a megaphone and invited on cable news to do it every day.

No-one is watching CNN much these days, but they’re not watching women’s tennis either. I digress.

In Czechoslovakia, Navratilova would’ve been handed a court summons or a one-way ticket to a re-education camp.

If Trump’s America was a dictatorship, it must have been the first in history where the dictator got impeached twice, mocked relentlessly on late night TV, and was kicked off Twitter by Silicon Valley nerds in hoodies.

Stalin would be spinning in his mass grave.

So yes, Martina, please tell us more about how much you preferred a country where people were arrested for listening to Western music, and newspapers printed whatever the government told them to.

Or, just maybe, take a moment to remember why you left.

Because when a multi-millionaire living in a mansion in Florida pines for a communist dictatorship, you start to wonder whether someone’s strung their tennis racket just a little too tight.

___

Republished with thanks to The James Macperson Report.

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Images via Wikimedia Commons.