What to Know
Both the male and female USA hockey teams beat their respective Canadian opponents in the 2026 Winter Olympics and each received gold medals. Afterward, FBI director Kash Patel arranged a phone call between Donald Trump and the male team while in the locker room during a celebration following their win. Naturally, Trump took the opportunity to share a rude joke at the expense of the female team.
Even if the female hockey team didn’t also just win gold, joking about the women is totally unnecessary. But leave it to a locker room full of boys, including Patel as he swung back beers, to joke about the female team. A video of the conversation was posted on X and, among the ‘atta boys,’ there was some genuine outrage at Trump and Patel being so blatantly sexist and rude toward the women’s team.
Are women surprised? No. Annoyed? Absolutely.
Trump just had to make a sexist joke about women’s sports.
You can hear the genuine pride in Donald Trumps voice when he called the Team USA Hockey Team pic.twitter.com/ch6GbXShwh
— Harrison Krank (@HarrisonKrank) February 23, 2026
In the video, Patel holds his phone with Trump on speaker. Trump commends the team for the win and invites everyone to the State of the Union address. Then, he adds, he has to invite the women too or he would be “impeached.” This gets a rousing chorus of laughter from literally everyone in the locker room despite the joke being…where?
“We’ll get Kash, and we’ll get the military to get you guys over,” Trump tells the guys on the call. “You won’t have to worry about the weather or landing. We don’t care if it’s snowing or if it’s the worst blizzard. We’ll be sailing through like you did on the ice.”
He then says, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.” It’s giving ‘sorry boys, we have to bring your sister too. I know she sucks, but we’ll get in trouble with Mom if we don’t.’
The toxic masculinity in the locker room is palpable.
After the video was posted to X, a clear supporter of this boys’ club responded to it with, “We’re living in the good old days, enjoy it while it lasts.”
On a TikTok video about how women feel following Trump’s sexist joke and the locker room full of men cackling at it, most commented to share their sheer disappointment, but not surprise, at men in general.
“I’m just so tired of being so hated all the time,” one woman commented. “It’s exhausting.”
Another added, “And that pretty much sums up my choice to quit hockey even as my childhood sport and the only one I ever truly loved to play.” Someone else, who had a lot of excitement over the women’s team winning in the Olympics, wrote, “Just hearing about this and suddenly I’m not excited anymore.”
The women’s U.S. Olympic hockey team declined the White House invitation.
After the video was posted, the women’s hockey team was quick to politely decline the invite to the State of the Union address with a lot more class than most of us might have in a similar situation. According to NBC News, a spokesperson for USA Hockey released a statement on behalf of the team.
“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 said. “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate.”
