President Donald Trump faced criticism Monday after joking with the U.S. ice hockey team on the Olympic podium about having to invite the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s team to the White House as well.
In one congratulatory phone call Along with the American men, who won gold at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 46 years, Trump suggested using military aircraft to fly the team to his State of the Union address on Tuesday before sharing a “very cool” pitch for the team to visit the White House the next day.
“And we have to – I have to tell you – we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” said Trump, who continued to chuckle as the American men burst into laughter in a video circulating on social media.
He added: “[If I don’t] If I do that, I think I’ll probably get impeached, okay?”
The clip shows FBI Director Kash Patel, who is facing backlash of his own for guzzling beer with the American men on a reportedly taxpayer-funded trip to Italy, holding the phone as Trump speaks to the team and slurring the president’s word that he can arrange such a visit.
Both the American men and women went undefeated in the group stage of the Winter Olympics and advanced through the playoffs before securing gold by beating the rival Canadians in overtime by the same scoreline (2-1).
The victory for the American women marked their third gold since the introduction of the Olympic sport in 1998.
A spokesperson for Team USA told NBC News that the White House has invited the women’s team to the SOTU speech and while they are “sincerely grateful” for the invitation, the players cannot attend “due to timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.”
It remains unclear whether members of the men’s team will reach the SOTU address on Tuesday, and whether members of both teams have committed to visiting the White House the following day or in the future.
HuffPost has reached out to the White House and USA Hockey for comment.
EyesWideOpen via Getty Images
Social media users have criticized Trump for his joke: included activist Shannon Watts, who denounced the president on X for “reluctantly” extending the invitation to the gold medal-winning women. She criticized the men’s team for laughing along.
Critics on X called the men in the video “spineless‘ and characterized the clip as ‘discouraging“And”unforgivable.”
One top comment on Reddit described the joke as ‘absolutely embarrassing’.
“I wish I was surprised…but it still turns my stomach knowing I was cheering for them yesterday,” the commentator wrote of the men’s team.
Petr David Josek via Associated Press
Others in the Reddit thread expressed disappointment at brothers Quinn and Jack Hughes, the latter of whom scored the golden goal for the US men on Sunday, as they appeared to laugh at the joke.
The siblings’ mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, played for the U.S. women’s national team in the early 1990s and worked as a player development consultant for the team in Milan.
Trump’s proposed date for Team USA’s visit to the White House — Wednesday — is notably at odds with the date the NHL season will resume play after an extended break due to the Winter Olympics.
Professional Women’s Hockey League players will also return to the ice on Thursday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) This was told by journalists on Monday he explored the logistics of a possible DC visit by the teams.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic that it is up to the men’s players to decide whether to accept such invitations on an individual basis and that their teams must subsequently opt out of such a visit.
