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A video of Donald Trump congratulating the US’ males’s hockey staff through telephone name on their Olympics win went viral after the president made a remark concerning the ladies’s staff. The telephone name, carried out by FBI Director Kash Patel within the males’s locker room following the staff’s victory on February 22, concerned an invite to the February 24 State of the Union deal with. So, what precisely did Trump say concerning the ladies’s staff that precipitated an uproar on-line?
Discover out what the president mentioned concerning the ladies’s hockey staff right here.
Did Trunp Invite Each the Males’s & Ladies’s Hockey Groups to Washington, D.C.?
Sure, Trump prolonged an invite to each males’s and girls’s groups, however the males’s invite was the one one which was captured on digital camera. He even provided to fly them to Washington, D.C., regardless of snowstorms that impacted the northeast.
What Did Trump Say In regards to the Ladies’s Hockey Staff?
In keeping with the video that went viral on-line, Trump mentioned concerning the ladies’s staff, “I have to inform you we’re going to must deliver the ladies too; you do know that. Imagine me, I in all probability could be impeached, OK?”
The boys’s hockey staff laughed in response to the president’s joke, as seen within the clip.
You possibly can hear the real pleasure in Donald Trumps voice when he known as the Staff USA Hockey Staff pic.twitter.com/ch6GbXShwh
— Harrison Krank (@HarrisonKrank) February 23, 2026
Why Did the Ladies’s Hockey Staff Decline Trump’s Invitation?
The ladies’s hockey staff cited scheduling conflicts with the president’s invitation. A spokesperson for USA Hockey mentioned they had been “honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
“We’re sincerely grateful for the invitation prolonged to our gold medal–successful U.S. Ladies’s Hockey Staff and deeply respect the popularity of their extraordinary achievement,” the rep mentioned. “Because of the timing and beforehand scheduled educational {and professional} commitments following the Video games, the athletes are unable to take part.”
Staff USA Captain Hilary Knight responded to Trump’s joke throughout an look on “SportsCenter,” calling it a “distasteful” remark.
“I believed it was form of a distasteful joke, and sadly, that’s overshadowing plenty of the success, the success of simply ladies on the Olympics carrying for Staff USA and having superb gold medal feats,” she mentioned. “Now, I’ve to, or anyone has to sit down in entrance of you and clarify another person’s conduct. It’s not my duty.”
What Did the Males’s Hockey Staff Say In regards to the Ladies’s Staff?
The boys’s staff didn’t talk about the backlash collectively, however NHL star Jack Hughes spoke out concerning the controversy in a press release to the Day by day Mail.
“They’ve received busy schedules, too,” Hughes mentioned concerning the ladies’s staff’s rejection of the president’s invitation. “Everyone seems to be giving us backlash for all of the social media stuff right now. Individuals are so adverse on the market, and they’re simply looking for a purpose to place folks down and make one thing out of virtually nothing.”
Including that each USA groups’ relationship is “so tight,” Hughes continued, “I feel 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 means we really feel about them, they really feel about us.”
Jack additionally mentioned the lads’s staff was “excited” to attend Trump’s State of the Union. “Every thing is so political. We’re athletes. We’re so proud to signify the US, and whenever you get the possibility to go to White Home and meet the president, we’re proud to be Individuals, and that’s so patriotic.”
“It doesn’t matter what your views are, we’re tremendous excited to go to the White Home tomorrow and be part of that,” Hughes concluded.