President Donald Trump made reference to the U.S. girls’s hockey staff throughout his 2026 State of the Union handle after they declined the White Home’s invitation.
Whereas Trump, 79, was discussing how a lot the US has been “profitable” throughout his Tuesday, February 24, speech, he introduced out the Crew USA’s males’s hockey staff out to pay tribute to the gold medalists after they made “the whole nation proud.”
After a sequence of “USA!” cheers from the viewers and a standing ovation, Trump famous that the staff “beat a unbelievable Canadian staff in time beyond regulation” whereas on the 2026 Olympics in Milan, Italy, “as did the American girls.”
He added that the ladies’s staff, who had been absent from the night time’s occasion, “will quickly be coming to the White Home.”
Trump then turned his consideration again to the boys, revealing that after taking a vote with the staff, he can be presenting goalie Connor Hellebuyck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (Hellebuyck, 32, made 41 saves throughout Crew USA’s victory recreation towards Canada, securing the win with a vital stick save within the third interval and incomes a secondary help on the game-winning purpose.)
“I did take a vote … each single certainly one of them quickly put up their hand,” Trump mentioned. “What a particular job you probably did, what particular champions you might be.”
Crew USA girls’s hockey staff selected to skip Tuesday night time’s handle after taking dwelling gold on the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“We’re sincerely grateful for the invitation prolonged to our gold medal–profitable U.S. Ladies’s Hockey Crew and deeply recognize the popularity of their extraordinary achievement,” USA Hockey mentioned in a press release to NBC Information on Monday, February 23. “They had been honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
USA Hockey mentioned the gamers can be unable to attend “as a result of timing and beforehand scheduled educational {and professional} commitments.”
The staff didn’t obtain an invitation to the State of the Union till the night time of Sunday, February 22which a supply instructed the Related Press made it “tough to alter their journey plans.”
Trump’s handle was attended by members of Crew USA males’s hockey staff, who additionally gained gold on the 2026 Olympics, together with Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes, Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk.
The choice for a number of the males’s gamers to attend the State of the Union got here after Trump took a dig on the girls’s staff throughout a celebratory name after the boys defeated Crew Canada within the gold medal recreation on Sunday, February 22.
Grace Zumwinkle, Hilary Knight, and Taylor Heise.
Erick W. Rasco/Sports activities Illustrated through Getty Pictures“We’ve got medals for you guys. I have to inform you, we‘re going to need to convey the ladies’s staff,” Trump mentioned, which elicited laughter from the gamers huddled round a cellphone held by FBI director Kash Patel.
Trump argued he would “most likely can be impeached” if he didn’t invite the ladies’s staff.
Throughout an look on Good Morning America on Tuesday, Quinn, 26, mentioned he was “excited” to attend the State of the Union handle.
“It’s going to be particular for us,” Quinn continued.
The Minnesota Wild star mentioned he and his teammates had been “extraordinarily joyful” for the American girls’s gold medal victory.
“There’s quite a bit occurring on social media proper now surrounding our staff and their staff,” Quinn added. “Within the final couple summers, we did a variety of coaching with them and received to know (them) rather well.”
Quinn’s youthful brother, Jack, 24, addressed the swirling controversies involving the Crew USA hockey groups earlier than an look at E11VEN nightclub in Miami on Monday night time.
“Everyone seems to be giving us backlash for all of the social media stuff in the present day,” Jack instructed the Every day Mailreferring particularly to the gamers laughing at Trump’s feedback concerning the girls’s staff.
Hughes added, “Individuals are so adverse on the market and they’re simply looking for a motive to place folks down and make one thing out of virtually nothing … I believe everybody in that locker room is aware of how a lot we help them, how proud we’re of them and we all know the identical method we really feel about them, they really feel about us.”