Exhausted, sweaty athletes, beer, champagne, and a congratulatory call from the president of the United States. All standard fare during the celebration of a gold-medal winning game at the Olympics. But some of the commotion around the U.S. men’s hockey team — who won their first Olympic gold medal since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” — has taken a political turn, with beleaguered FBI Director Kash Patel celebrating in the locker room before patching in President Donald Trump, who complained to the players that he would also “have to bring” the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s team to festivities at the White House or “be impeached.”
In videos of the celebration Patel — whose office spent days insisting he was in Milan on official business and not to party at the Olympics — chugged beers, banged on tables, and tried on players’ gold medals. At one point, he held out his phone so the president could deliver a message to the team. Trump congratulated them, and offered to coordinate military aircraft to transport the team from Miami (where they will be flying to in order to avoid winter storms battering the northeast) to Washington, D.C., for his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
“We’ll do the White House,” Trump told players. “We’ll just have some fun, we have medals for you guys. And we have to — I must tell you — we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” the president said, chuckling. The players laughed. “I do believe I probably would be impeached [if I didn’t],” Trump continued.
Neither the White House or USA Hockey — which manages both the men’s and women’s teams — immediately responded to requests for comment from Rolling Stone.
The women’s team on Monday said it is declining Trump’s invitation to attend the State of the Union. “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,” a USA Hockey spokesperson said, citing timing and previously scheduled commitments. “They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment,” the spokesperson added.
The United States won 12 gold medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, half of which were won by female athletes, and another two by mixed-gender teams. The final match of the women’s hockey event between the United States and Canada broke the record for the most-watched women’s hockey game ever. So far, the White House has not extended an invitation to the U.S. women’s hockey team, and there is no record of the president giving them a congratulatory locker room phone call. Instead, the president — who claims he wants to “protect” and uphold women’s sports by demonizing transgender athletes — painted the women’s team as unwanted hangers-on to the men’s celebration. It isn’t surprising from a president who has a long history of reflexive misogyny and alleged abuse against women.
Team USA was already in a difficult position going into these Olympics. The team arrived in Italy amid international attention to Trump’s deadly immigration crackdown, the continued fallout of the Epstein saga, and the perpetual tension Trump has wrought between the United States and its international allies. Any athlete who spoke candidly about their concerns regarding the political climate within the U.S.A., or god forbid outright criticized the president and Republicans, became the subject of threats and pile-ons by conservatives.
Trump even directly attacked U.S. skier Hunter Hess after he told reporters that “just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.” The president in turn called Hess a “real loser” that “shouldn’t have tried out for the Team,” if he felt that way in a Truth Social post. Figure Skater Amber Glenn — who won a gold medal in the team competition — said she received “a scary amount of hate/threats” after speaking openly about her experience as an LGBTQ athlete. Conservative pundits and influencers went so far as to suggest that athletes who were vocally critical of the president or the state of the country be kicked off the team or outright stripped of citizenship.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Patel celebrated with players in Milan as he and the FBI struggled to fend off accusations of incompetence and abuse of public funds, including for personal travel to sporting events and visits to see his girlfriend, singer Alexis Wilkins. Patel claimed he had been in Milan for “multiple partner and counterpart meetings including the Ambassador, MOU signings, LEGAT meetings, security briefings and more,” and that it was “NOT accurate to say he’s flying out on government funds for a personal trip,” in a social media post featuring an email the FBI sent to MS Now. It bears remembering that in 2023, well before taking the job, Patel publicly declared that the FBI director did not need a “government funded G-5 jet to go [on] vacation,” and suggested grounding the plane. During his 2025 confirmation hearing, Patel promised that the resources of the FBI would be exclusively dedicated to saving American lives. “America deserves a better brand of justice and I’m going to give it to them,” Patel declared.
“For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely 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,” Patel wrote Monday on X. “Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth.”
Even if one believes there’s nothing wrong with an administration official joining players in the locker room, Patel behaving like a frat house pledge the day a gunman was shot and killed while attempting to breach Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort suggests that he isn’t as laser-focused on the job as he promised lawmakers he would be.
Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino stand as Spain celebrates its World Cup victory, on July 19, 2026.
America Got the World Cup It Deserves — Good and Bad
For the past six weeks or so I’ve been having a recurring fight with my friends. The dispute is over whether or not it’s ethical to support the U.S. national team in the World Cup.
To the vast majority of people reading this article, this is an absurd question: of course you can and should support the United States Men’s National Team, you weirdo. And look, I’m with you. But despite the fact that my friends are pompous dorks who are no fun to watch the game with, the question they raise is valid: Are our national teams avatars of the administration in power, or of the people and promise of that country?
If you believe the former, then yeah, it’s pretty fucking weird to support the USMNT. In doing so, by that thinking, you’d be engaging in a sort of athletic nationalism on behalf of a country run by Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in history, who forced the Iranian national team to flee across the border immediately after the final whistle of each of their games, whose federal police have shot numerous civilians dead in the street during a brutal immigration crackdown, who has started a war and supported a genocide while covering up his close personal friendship with the most notorious pedophile in modern history.
I mean just look at him. On Sunday he waddled down onto the field to present Spain with their trophy, lingering on stage with the victorious team as they tried to celebrate. The presence of Mexican President Claudia Steinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did little to dilute the image of Trump standing next to his crony Gianni Infantino, grinning at all the trappings of their power, hands caressing a trophy they’d done nothing to earn, lingering well past his cue to leave Spain to their glory. This World Cup, literally, had Donald Trump’s fingerprints all over it.
And yet, this was one of the most thrilling, beautiful World Cups in recent memory. That’s America, baby — contradictions abound.
Over the past five weeks of the greatest athletic competition on Earth, we’ve seen games that will literally never leave my memory. The final, which I attended yesterday in New Jersey, was remarkably forgettable — a 0-0 draw until the 106th minute, with Spain dominating every second of play and yet unable to score, undone time and time again by their insistence on tricksy passing and the personal heroics of Argentina’s goalkeeper Emi Martinez. The rest of the tournament, however, delivered. Cabo Verde, refusing to lose until the very last moments of the first knockout round, battling back again and again against both teams that would eventually play in the final. The sheer dominance of France’s Kylian Mbappe in front of goal, scoring at will, rivaled only by the aging GOAT Leo Messi and the Norwegian warlord Erling Haaland. England’s heroic stand at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, 45 minutes in the rain, a man down, holding out for the win and singing “Wonderwall” with what felt like half the stadium when it ended. Off the pitch, too: the Algerian national team being welcomed with open arms by Lawrence, Kansas; Scottish braves drinking Boston dry and partying wildly with Haitian fans that overcame so much just to be at the tournament. In Mexico, of course, the World Cup was everything, and its fans threw joyous South Koreans pumped full of tequila into the air, and celebrated in the streets with opposing fans even after their hard-fought defeat to England.
For the United States, what the 2026 World Cup was — what our team was, what our fans were, what our performance as hosts was — is a reflection of two things at once: what our nation is and what it can be.
Our star striker, Folarin Balogun, was born here by accident, a citizen only because of a birthright system that our president is currently trying to erase. We have Ricardo and Giovanni and Freeman and Zendejas. We have another striker whose name is Haji, for goodness sake. I look at that team and I see the country America can be, one in which any soul born in or living within our arbitrary borders can become part of a great national project that seeks to improve the lives of everyone it can. And yet, I can also look at that team and see a reflection of what the country is, because there is an anchor around its neck. When Balogun was — albeit unjustly — suspended for a crucial match, Trump himself stepped in. Cronyism saved the day and got Balogun reinstated, but ruined the fragile harmony the team had enjoyed. On the pitch against Belgium, they came apart. Temperamental star Christian Pulisic tried to go alone and then quit, aging defender Tim Ream’s legs failed him when he needed them most, a young goalkeeper slipped and fell when he had no good options for support.
What more can you say about a team, about our country? The team is an entity that is capable of more but still has so far to go, that is vulnerable to the same forces of avarice and selfishness and fear that plague our national identity writ large.
It’s possible to end the story there, to say good riddance to another failed year and fractured team. But I think that’s a mistake. I think if you believe that you haven’t really been watching. I think that’s also why it pissed me off so much that some of my friends wouldn’t root for the U.S. Yes, we have flaws, like every country involved in the tournament. Yes, our current team management and political government are filled with morons. But if you won’t put on the shirt you’re essentially opting out of our future. We can’t wait around for a better world, a better team, a better president, before we deign to lend our support. Progress only comes from effort, from caring, from believing in something more.
One of my favorite images of the World Cup was a crowd shot of the opening match against Paraguay in Los Angeles: every race, color and creed of American there is, all covered in red white and blue. It’s corny and trite, sure. But that’s what it’s all about. That’s why we’re here. You have to believe. The U.S. won that game 4-2. In four years, we’ll be even better.