President Donald Trump’s joke on the expense of Workforce USA’s ladies’s hockey crew has divided the sports activities world following the 2026 Winter Olympic Video games.
The controversy began after Workforce USA’s women and men’s hockey squads each received gold on the Milan and Cortina video games. On February 22, 2026, President Trump referred to as the lads’s crew of their locker room as they celebrated their time beyond regulation victory towards Workforce Canada within the gold medal recreation. (Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, was partying with the lads’s crew of their locker room throughout the name.)
After inviting the lads’s hockey crew to his State of the Union tackle in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, February 24, Trump quipped: “We’ve got medals for you guys. I have to let you know, we‘re going to should carry the ladies’s crew. (If I don’t invite them,) I do consider I in all probability can be impeached.”
A number of members of the lads’s crew might be heard laughing at Trump’s joke. USA Hockey subsequently introduced that the ladies’s crew wouldn’t make a White Home go to or attend the State of the Union speech “as a result of timing and beforehand scheduled educational {and professional} commitments.”
Dave Portnoy is weighing in on the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s alleged “joke” in regards to the USA ladies’s hockey crew after each the women and men took dwelling 2026 Winter Olympics gold towards the Canadians. “Persons are mad, they’re going nuts. ‘How might the (USA males’s) hockey crew snort, why are they speaking to the (…)
Maintain scrolling for extra about what each the women and men’s hockey groups have mentioned in regards to the controversy.
Jack Hughes Provides a Patriotic Speech After Males’s Gold Medal Win
Workforce USA heart Jack Hughes scored the gold medal-winning purpose within the males’s hockey finals towards Workforce Canada on February 22, 2026 — a feat made all of the extra spectacular since he’d misplaced a number of enamel after being cracked with a excessive stick by Canada’s Sam Bennett within the third interval.
In a postgame interview, Hughes informed NBC Sports activities’ Kathryn Tappen that his crew’s Olympics success made him really feel “proud to be an American.”
“That is all about our nation proper now,” Hughes mentioned following Workforce USA’s win. “I really like the USA. I really like my teammates. It’s unbelievable. The USA hockey brotherhood is so robust. We had a lot assist from ex-players. I’m so proud to be an American in the present day.”
Within the locker room, the lads’s crew spoke with President Donald Trump. The president joked that he was ”going to should carry the ladies’s crew,” together with the lads, for a White Home go to or else he “in all probability can be impeached.”
Workforce USA Ladies’s Hockey Gamers Decline to Attend State of the Union Speech
In mild of President Donald Trump’s joke, USA Hockey confirmed on February 23 that the ladies’s crew would skip a White Home go to and declined a suggestion to attend the State of the Union speech in Washington D.C.
“We’re sincerely grateful for the invitation prolonged to our gold medal–successful U.S. Ladies’s Hockey Workforce and deeply admire the popularity of their extraordinary achievement,” USA Hockey informed NBC Information. “They have been honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
The Related Press reported that the short turnaround of Trump’s invitation for the crew to journey to Washington D.C. would have triggered logistical issues for the ladies.
Jack Hughes Tries to Downplay Ladies’s Workforce Skipping White Home Go to
Workforce USA’s Jack Hughes seemingly tried to downplay the political implications of the feminine gamers turning down President Donald Trump’s supply to go to the White Home and attend his State of the Union Speech.
“They’ve received busy schedules too,” Hughes informed the Each day Mail on February 23, 2026. “Everyone seems to be giving us backlash for all of the social media stuff in the present day.”
Hughes prompt that critics have been placing a damper on each the women and men’s hockey groups’ success at Milan and Cortina.
“Persons are so damaging on the market and they’re simply looking for a cause to place individuals down and make one thing out of virtually nothing,” Hughes complained. “Persons are so damaging about issues. I believe everybody in that locker room is aware of how a lot we assist (the ladies’s crew), how proud we’re of them and we all know the identical method we really feel about them, they really feel about us.”
Jack Hughes’ Mom Weighs In on Controversy Over Donald Trump’s Remarks
On February 24, Ellen Hughes — the mom of Workforce USA males’s standouts Jack and Quinn Hughes and a guide for USA Hockey — defended her sons’ resolution to occasion with FBI director Kash Patel and meet with President Donald Trump on the White Home.
“I believe on the finish of the day, it’s simply in regards to the nation and the second that these gamers, each the women and men, can carry a lot unity to a bunch and to a rustic,” Ellen informed Right this moment. “Those that cheered on that don’t watch hockey, folks that have politics on one facet or on the opposite facet. And that’s all each the lads’s crew and the ladies’s crew care about.”
Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes of Workforce United States. Bruce Bennett/Getty Pictures
Ellen argued that her sons and their teammates’ resolution to go to the White Home and attend the State of the Union speech was not inherently political.
“When you might see what we see from the within and the women and men sharing, , dorm rooms and halls and flex flooring and the camaraderie and the synergy, and the best way the ladies cheered on the lads and the best way the lads cheered on the ladies,” she insisted. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Ellen went on, “The opposite issues, they can not management. They care about humanity. They care about unity they usually care in regards to the nation. I hope everyone simply understands what we did within the second, each the women and men to carry this nation collectively and let everyone cheer in the identical path.”
Quinn and Jack Hughes Specific Pleasure Over Visiting the White Home
Throughout a Good Morning America interview on February 24, 2026, Quinn Hughes mentioned he was “excited” to go to the White Home and prompt the journey can be “particular” for the lads’s crew.
“There’s rather a lot occurring on social media proper now surrounding our crew and (the ladies’s crew),” Quinn added later within the phase. “Within the final couple summers, we did a number of coaching with them and received to know (them) rather well.”
5 Gamers from Workforce USA Males’s Hockey Skip a White Home Assembly With Donald Trump
Forward of the controversial White Home assembly, it was reported that 5 gamers from Workforce USA males’s hockey — Winnipeg Jets ahead Kyle Connor, Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, Colorado Avalanche ahead Brock Nelson, Anaheim Geese defenseman Jackson LaCombe and Tampa Bay Lightning ahead Jake Guentzel — have been skipping the Washington D.C. go to to be able to return to their NHL groups.
Connor spoke to reporters about his option to miss the State of the Union, insisting that he was “simply on the brink of play on Wednesday” with the Jets towards the Vancouver Canucks.
“We’ve got a giant second half (of the season) so I simply wished to ensure I used to be prepared,” he mentioned.
Donald Trump Shouts Out Each the Males and Ladies’s Hockey Groups in His State of the Union Speech
Donald Trump introduced out the Workforce USA males’s hockey crew throughout his State of the Union speech in Washington D.C. on February 24, 2026, to say that they’d made “your complete nation proud.”
Trump briefly acknowledged that the ladies’s crew additionally received gold in Milan and Cortina, earlier than suggesting they “will quickly be coming to the White Home.” He then turned again to the lads’s squad to announce that he deliberate to present goalie Connor Hellebuyck the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“I did take a vote … each single certainly one of them quickly put up their hand up,” Trump informed Hellebuyck. “What a particular job you probably did, what particular champions you’re.”
Vincent Trocheck Condemns ‘Politicization’ of Workforce USA Hockey’s White Home Go to
On the heels of Workforce USA Hockey’s males attending the State of the Union speech, heart Vincent Trocheck informed reporters it was “unhappy” that his crew’s White Home go to was “getting politicized the best way it’s.”
“We’re all very proud to be Individuals, and we have been all so proud to go (to the 2026 Winter Olympics) and win a gold medal,” he informed reporters. “We went over there with a job, and it was to win gold and do it for our nation and for everyone again right here, and we have been in a position to do this.”
The U.S. males’s Olympic ice hockey crew with Jack Hughes and Quinn Hughes attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union tackle. Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Pictures
He went on, “It’s unhappy that it mechanically will get became one thing political when all we actually wished to do was signify everyone in right here and everyone in our nation in addition to we might.”
Trocheck revealed he’d by no means earlier than visited White Home or the U.S. Capitol, so he felt it was “such an honor to have the ability to go.”
Workforce USA’s Hilary Knight Slams Donald Trump’s ‘Distasteful’ Joke
Hilary Knight held nothing again throughout a press convention on February 25, 2026, as she condemned President Donald Trump making a joke at her crew’s expense.
“We simply thought the joke was distasteful and unlucky,” Knight informed reporters. “I believe, simply the best way ladies are represented, it’s a terrific instructing level to essentially shine mild on how ladies ought to be championed for his or her superb feats. And now I type of have to take a seat, or anyone has to take a seat in entrance of you and clarify another person’s habits. It’s not my accountability.”
Knight felt it was unfair to each the women and men’s groups to be slowed down in a political controversy in mild of their success on the Milan and Cortina video games.
“No matter’s occurring ought to by no means outshine or decrease their work and our success on the world stage,” she mentioned. “This was one of the best American ladies’s hockey crew we’ve ever put collectively on a world stage when the lights have been the brightest. I believe everybody felt that going by that.”
She concluded, “I need to rejoice that (success). I need individuals to be remembered for that. I need the legacy of this crew to be remembered. That’s what I’m making an attempt to shift the narrative on and actually focusing (on) and championing what we’ve performed and what we’ve completed the final two-and-a-half weeks collectively.”
Kelly Pannek Says Donald Trump’s Joke Was ‘Not Shocking’
Workforce USA’s Kelly Pannek spoke with reporters about her success in Milan and Cortina, along with the backlash over President Donald Trump’s joke.
“With the cellphone name particularly, it’s not stunning, to be frank,” Pannek mentioned on February 25, 2026. “So I don’t know why we anticipate in a different way, however I believe for us, it’s additionally nearly getting again to the deal with our crew and what our crew completed.”
Hayley Scamurra Celebrates ‘Outpouring of Love’ From Followers
Workforce USA’s Hayley Scamurra briefly touched on President Donald Trump’s joke throughout a February 2026 look on the “Hockey Lifers” podcast, the place she mentioned she most popular to deal with the assist her crew obtained.
“I believe, , the decision was what it was,” Scamurra admitted. “And truthfully, like, the outpouring of affection and assist we’ve form of obtained since that has outweighed another emotions that I’ve.”
Jack Hughes Addressed Laughing at Donald Trump’s Joke Concerning the Ladies’s Workforce
Talking to reporters on February 25, 2026, Jack Hughes tried to supply context on why he and a few of his teammates laughed at President Donald Trump’s joke on the ladies’s expense.
“You’re within the second, the president calls,” Hughes defined. “We’re blaring the music after which they pause the music after which the president calls. I don’t suppose … clearly, it’s what it’s now.”
He continued, “We’ve got a lot respect for the ladies’s crew. They’ve a lot respect for us. We’re all simply proud Individuals. We’re glad that we each swept the Olympics.”
Vice President JD Vance is giving Workforce USA some unsolicited recommendation because the athletes compete within the 2026 Winter Olympics. “My recommendation to them can be to attempt to carry the nation collectively, and whenever you’re representing the nation, you’re representing Democrats and Republicans,” Vance, 41, informed CNN and different reporters on Wednesday, February 11. (…)
Hughes requested the media to do not forget that he and his teammates “are simply hockey gamers.”
“We did our job. We went over to the Olympics to win a gold medal and that’s what we did,” he mentioned. “I’ve had one of the best time of my life celebrating with my teammates that we completed our purpose. I’m a hockey participant. We’re so proud to be again within the U.S. and celebrating our gold medal and to do it with our teammates, that’s one of the best half.”
Workforce USA’s Tage Thompson Defends Sporting a ‘MAGA’ Hat Throughout White Home Go to
Workforce USA males’s hockey star Tage Thompson confronted renewed backlash throughout his White Home go to with President Donald Trump by sporting a Make America Nice Once more hat for the event. He stood behind the divisive style selection whereas talking to Outkick on February 25, 2026.
“I’m proud to be an American, and I’ve my very own religion, my very own beliefs, and everybody’s entitled to their very own opinions and beliefs, as nicely,” he mentioned. “I believe we must always be capable to reside in peace understanding that not everybody’s going to agree with you.”
Thompson insisted that his robust non secular religion was on the heart of his assist of Trump and his MAGA motion.
“Jesus is every thing to me,” Thompson mentioned. “Clearly, we’re made imperfect. We’re all sinners, and we want him. And I fall quick each single day, and he’s the one I depend on.”
He added, “I believe when you will have that sense of hope, the grace and the mercy that I obtain day by day from him is one thing that offers me peace and pleasure in life, it doesn’t matter what I do. And he’s blessed me with this recreation and this chance to play the sport I really like at a excessive stage, an attractive household and pals, individuals (surrounding) me that I really like. And I’m simply very grateful.”
Jeremy Swayman Says Workforce USA Males Ought to Have ‘Reacted In a different way’ to Donald Trump’s Joke
Workforce USA males’s participant Jeremy Swayman acknowledged that his teammates ought to have “reacted in a different way” when Donald Trump made a joke in regards to the ladies’s crew.
“We all know that we’re so excited for the ladies’s crew,” he informed reporters. “We’ve got a lot respect for the ladies’s crew. To share that gold medal with them is one thing we’re ceaselessly grateful for. … Now that we’re dwelling, we get to share that collectively ceaselessly.”