Donald Trump loves sports. But not every athlete feels the same way about him.
And these star American olympians just snubbed President Trump with this cold response.
What a week for American hockey! Our U.S. teams crushed Canada in overtime thrillers to snag gold medals, reminding the world why America leads on the ice.
President Donald Trump, always quick to celebrate real winners, invited both the men’s and women’s squads to his State of the Union address. But while the guys seem pumped to show up and soak in the national spotlight, the ladies bowed out, blaming prior commitments.
The U.S. women’s hockey team made headlines by turning down the invite on Monday. They cited “previously scheduled academic and professional commitments” as the reason they couldn’t make it to Capitol Hill for Trump’s big speech.
A USA Hockey spokesman kept it polite, saying, “We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal–winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” per NBC News.
Still, the women absolutely owned the Olympics. They let in just two goals the whole tournament, steamrolling Canada 5-0 in the prelims. But the gold-medal clash got intense—they were down late until Hilary Knight knotted it up with two minutes to go, and Megan Keller sealed the deal in sudden-death overtime.
Trump didn’t hesitate to extend the rare honor of a State of the Union guest spot after both teams’ victories. These invites are gold themselves, with tight limits on who gets in, shared among Congress, the Speaker, and the President.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) jumped in to help, telling POLITICO on Monday that they were sorting out the details to host the teams, including all those players and coaches.
“There’s no way to have special guests on the floor because it’s a literal session of Congress,” the speaker stated. “But we’re going to work and do what we can to accommodate.”
On the men’s side, it’s a different story. After clinching America’s first men’s hockey gold since 1980 by topping Canada on Sunday, Trump tossed out the invite.
During that locker-room chat, Trump cracked a joke about fairness: “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” he said to the men’s team. Trump said that if he didn’t give out an invite to the women’s team, he would “probably be impeached.”
The men’s team was all in, celebrating with beers next to FBI Director Kash Patel when Trump rang. They erupted in cheers over the phone invite.
Trump even offered top-shelf travel: “We’re giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. I could send a military plane or something if you would like to,” he stated. Some players shot back, “We’re in!”
Trump wrapped it up graciously: “If you could work that out, I would be honored to have you all.”
