Credit: Alamy & @jackhughes/Instagram
Team USA Hockey Star Defends Team’s Response To Trump’s S**ist Joke
A Team USA hockey player has defended the team’s response to a ‘s**ist’ joke by Donald Trump.
The golden glow of Team USA’s historic ice hockey double at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics didn’t last long before controversy came crashing in.
Jack Hughes, the New Jersey Devils star who netted the game-winning goal in overtime to hand the United States men’s team their first Olympic gold since the legendary Miracle on Ice in 1980, has broken his silence, and he’s pushing back hard against the wave of criticism directed at both himself and his teammates.
At the center of the storm is a phone call. A congratulatory call from President Donald Trump to the men’s locker room in Milan that quickly took a turn, setting off a culture war debate that has dominated sports headlines ever since.
The joke that wasn’t funny to everyone
When Trump dialed into the men’s team’s victory celebration, the mood was electric.
The players had just pulled off one of the most dramatic finishes in Olympic hockey history, defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime to end a 46-year wait for gold.
The champagne was flowing, the energy was euphoric, and then the President opened his mouth about the women’s team.
“And we have to, I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” Trump said over speakerphone, to audible laughter from the players in the room. “If I don’t do that, I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?”
The comment, widely condemned online as dismissive and s**ist, framed the gold medal-winning women’s team, who had themselves defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime just days earlier, as a political inconvenience rather than a celebrated group of elite athletes.
The laughter from the men’s squad only added fuel to the fire, with critics accusing the players of co-signing the slight in real time.
The backlash was swift. Social media lit up with users calling Trump’s remarks ‘patronizing,’ ‘misogynistic,’ and ‘sickening,’ while others pointed out the bitter irony: the US women’s hockey team has historically been far more successful than the men’s, winning a medal at every Olympic Games since the sport was introduced, including gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics during Trump’s first term.
They have out-medaled the men at three consecutive Winter Olympics and four consecutive Summer Olympics.
The women’s team responds
While the criticism raged online, the women’s team let their actions speak for themselves. Through a spokesperson, USA Hockey issued a statement declining Trump’s invitation with characteristic grace and precision.
“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,” the statement read, per NBC.
“Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgement.”
The restraint of the statement was widely praised online, with many noting that the women had managed to be more dignified in their response than the men had been in their silence during Trump’s call.
Reports also emerged that several members of the women’s team had liked Instagram posts critical of how the men’s squad had reacted to the President’s remarks in the locker room.
The Denver mayor stepped in to offer the women’s team their own separate celebration and parade, a gesture that many commentators described as the classier, more fitting tribute to their achievement.
Meanwhile, captain Hilary Knight’s side had already made their feelings known by declining the White House invitation entirely, leaving the men’s team to make the trip to Washington alone.
A historic win overshadowed
It is worth pausing on what has been lost in all the noise. The men’s gold was genuinely historic, a 46-year drought that ended in the most dramatic fashion possible, with Hughes delivering the overtime winner in front of a global audience.
The women’s team, meanwhile, delivered an equally breathtaking performance across the tournament, with Knight reportedly breaking multiple US Olympic records along the way.
Both teams deserve recognition. Both teams earned their gold. But in the days since the closing ceremony, the story has become less about the hockey and more about what happened after, a phone call, a joke, a laugh, and a party at a Miami nightclub that generated its own viral wave of controversy.
FBI Director Kash Patel’s presence in the locker room also drew scrutiny, with social media users questioning whether a taxpayer-funded trip to Milan was an appropriate use of the director’s time.
Hughes fires back
Speaking to the Daily Mail at a victory party in Miami, Hughes didn’t mince words about how he views the criticism, though he stopped well short of an apology.
“They’ve got busy schedules, too,” he said, referring to the women’s team and their decision to decline Trump’s invitation. “Everyone is giving us backlash for all the social media stuff today. People are so negative out there, and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing.”
The 24-year-old insisted the relationship between the men’s and women’s squads remained strong, offering a glimpse into the camaraderie built across weeks together in the Athletes’ Village in Milan.
“Our relationship with them, over the course of being in the Athletes’ Village, I think we are so tight with their group,” he said.
“After we won the gold medal, we were in the cafeteria at 3:30 a.m. in the morning with them, and we go from there, pack our bags and we’re on the bus. People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them, and we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us.”
On the question of the White House visit itself, Hughes was equally unambiguous. Despite calls online for the men’s team to reject the invitation in solidarity with the women, the squad proceeded with their trip to Washington without hesitation.
“We’re athletes,” he told the Daily Mail. “We’re so proud to represent the US, and when you get the chance to go to the White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans and that’s so patriotic. No matter what your views are, we’re super excited to go to the White House and be a part of that.”
“Everything is so political,” he added, a comment that, for many critics, missed the point entirely.
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