{"id":467290,"date":"2026-02-22T21:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/467290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T21:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:16:20","slug":"trump-congratulates-usa-mens-hockey-in-phone-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/467290\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump congratulates USA men’s hockey in phone call"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Team USA received a congratulatory phone call from President Donald Trump after its 2-1 win over Canada<\/a> to take gold in men\u2019s hockey for the first time since 1980.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just spoke to the group expressing how proud he was of the group and congratulating everybody on the win,\u201d coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cObviously this game in a lot of ways was an inspiration to our country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many texts I\u2019ve received over the last day or so about watch parties at 8 in the morning. I think from a viewership standpoint in the United States, there were a lot of people paying attention, the president included.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"USAUSA captain Auston Matthews (34) and teammates pose for a photo after winning the Olympic gold medal on Feb. 22, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump similarly called Team USA before last year\u2019s 4 Nations final, which it lost to Canada against a far more political backdrop. That tournament came amid threats from the White House to annex Canada as the 51st state, and the \u2018Star Spangled Banner\u2019 was loudly booed in Montreal before both of Team USA\u2019s games at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n

Those tensions have, mostly, calmed for the time being. Aside from some of the European media, no one was trying to turn the hockey tournament at these Olympics into a political statement, though the Games as a whole had its fair share of Trump-related stories.<\/p>\n

There were rumors that Trump may fly to Italy to attend the final on Sunday, but with his State of the Union address on Tuesday, that didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump during the Governors Dinner at the White House on Feb. 21, 2026. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The most the president waded in, at least as it related to hockey, was after the tournament concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all proud Americans, obviously,\u201d captain Auston Matthews said. \u201cThis is a huge moment for us. A huge moment for the United States. He called, just congratulated us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews seemed to indicate that a White House visit was possible, though Team USA\u2019s fluctuating travel plans due to the blizzard on the East Coast and the NHL resuming play Thursday may make that a heavy logistical lift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of moving parts as far as our travels back home. We\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor to wear this jersey and to represent the U.S. To go home with a gold medal. You know how much that means to guys in this room, to people watching and rooting us on too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Team USA received a congratulatory phone call from President Donald Trump after its 2-1 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[532,23,5,2310,2602,333,43,422,2787,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-467290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-usa-hockey","16":"tag-winter-olympics","17":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116116363732459383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}