{"id":469242,"date":"2026-02-24T06:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469242\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:50:20","slug":"us-mens-hockey-team-gets-backlash-for-phone-call-with-trump-who-made-joke-about-inviting-womens-team-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469242\/","title":{"rendered":"US men\u2019s hockey team gets backlash for phone call with Trump who made joke about inviting women\u2019s team"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Gray News) \u2014 The U.S. men\u2019s hockey team is receiving criticism for conversations in the locker room after winning the gold medal at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Team USA won gold in an overtime victory against Canada Sunday. It was the first time the U.S. won gold in men\u2019s hockey since 1980.<\/p>\n

FBI Director Kash Patel joined the hockey players in the locker room to celebrate their win.<\/p>\n

While Patel\u2019s appearance alone stirred controversy, the criticism did not stop there. In videos shared<\/a> on social media, Patel was seen calling President Donald Trump and putting him on speakerphone to speak with the team.<\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam USA poses for a group photo after defeating Canada in the men’s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Luca Bruno)(Luca Bruno | AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cI just told my people \u2026 I said, we\u2019re giving the State of the Union speech Tuesday night \u2026 if you would like to, it\u2019s the coolest night,\u201d Trump said on the call, implying he was inviting the team to the speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in!\u201d several of the hockey players said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Mr. President,\u201d another shouted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would really be cool, and we\u2019ll do the White House next time, we\u2019ll just have some fun, we have medals for you guys. And we have to, I must tell you, we\u2019re gonna have to bring the women\u2019s team, you do know that?\u201d Trump said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

The team erupted in laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe that I would probably be impeached [if the women\u2019s team was not invited],\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team also won the gold medal at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam United States players pose together after receiving their gold medals after the women’s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster)(Carolyn Kaster | AP)<\/p>\n

Trump continued to praise the team for their success at the Olympics before ending the call.<\/p>\n

The video has drawn criticism on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them laughing about inviting the women\u2019s team. Every single one of them,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s sports will always be a punchline to them no matter how much phony lip service they pay,\u201d another wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo disappointed. Nothing but love & solidarity with our sisters,\u201d another wrote.<\/p>\n

Jessica Luther, an investigative journalist and author of books on sports and gender, called the conversation \u201cpainful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the video of Trump talking to the US men\u2019s hockey team, when he says, \u2018I must tell you, we\u2019re going to have to bring the women\u2019s team, you do know that\u2019 as a joke about how annoying it is to have women around, the most painful part for me, are all the hockey players laughing. Actually laughing,\u201d Luther posted on Bluesky<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More videos from the locker room showed Patel drinking beer from a bottle and spraying the rest around the room. After one of the players draped his gold medal around Patel\u2019s neck, Patel joined the players as they jumped up and down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a threat at the president\u2019s residence at [Mar-a-Lago], Americans in Mexico are facing major threats by cartel members, Nancy Guthrie is still missing, and our FBI Director thinks he\u2019s a frat bro?!\u201d Xochitl Hinojosa, spokeswoman for former Attorney General Merrick Garland, said on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patel responded to the criticism by posting that he was \u201cextremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press<\/a>, the FBI director had defended his official trip to Italy by saying he was going to meet with Italian law enforcement officials and Americans helping to provide security at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

He posted pictures this week of his visit to the Milan Joint Operations Center, which he said was charged with protecting the security of American athletes and all those who traveled to Milan for the Winter Games. He also posted a photo of his meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Italy.<\/p>\n

The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team has declined Trump\u2019s invitation to attend the State of the Union address Tuesday. It\u2019s unclear whether they will attend any future events at the White House. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal\u2013winning U.S. Women\u2019s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” a USA Hockey spokesperson told NBC News<\/a>. \u201cDue to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Gray News) \u2014 The U.S. men\u2019s hockey team is receiving criticism for conversations in the locker room after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[19,56726,654,22196,4571,3137,5,818,21619,2773,56725,4834,2602,29286,56724,3255,9194,413,2787,1581],"class_list":{"0":"post-469242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-fbi-director","10":"tag-game","11":"tag-gold","12":"tag-gold-medal","13":"tag-hilary-knight","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-hockey-team","16":"tag-kash-patel","17":"tag-locker-room","18":"tag-locker-room-phone-call","19":"tag-mens-hockey","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-phone-call","22":"tag-phone-call-with-trump","23":"tag-team-usa","24":"tag-trump","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-winter-olympics","27":"tag-womens-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116124282513136962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469242","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=469242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}