{"id":488169,"date":"2026-02-24T19:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488169\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:30:09","slug":"us-hockey-star-jack-hughes-says-people-are-making-something-out-of-almost-nothing-after-phone-call-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488169\/","title":{"rendered":"US hockey star Jack Hughes says people are \u2018making something out of almost nothing\u2019 after phone call with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">(Gray News) \u2014 Team USA hockey star Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal that secured the team\u2019s Olympic gold medal, said he is excited to go to the White House following President Donald Trump\u2019s invitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The U.S. men\u2019s hockey team has received backlash on social media for partying with FBI Director Kash Patel in the locker room after their big win and for speaking with Trump over a phone call.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"United States' Jack Hughes (86), who scored the winning overtime goal, celebrates after...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/LNT25PG4FVDRVIVEUEV7LCXEWA.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>United States&#8217; Jack Hughes (86), who scored the winning overtime goal, celebrates after defeating Canada in the men&#8217;s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026.(Carolyn Kaster | AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/2007warpedtour\/status\/2025780967789539526?s=46&amp;t=ur2P5MSMSrGDxyzhmgAjQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/2007warpedtour\/status\/2025780967789539526?s=46&amp;t=ur2P5MSMSrGDxyzhmgAjQw\">In videos posted<\/a> on social media, Trump can be heard on speakerphone inviting the men\u2019s hockey team to the White House and then making a joke about \u201chaving to\u201d invite the gold\u2011medal\u2011winning U.S. women\u2019s hockey team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\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<p class=\"text | article-text\">The team erupted in laughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI do believe that I would probably be impeached [if the women\u2019s team was not invited],\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Since the videos of the phone call went viral on social media, the men\u2019s team has received criticism.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Team United States players pose together after receiving their gold medals after the women's...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/VW5S2NOFFZHBBFN4ZX7IHIOJZM.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>Team United States players pose together after receiving their gold medals after the women&#8217;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<p class=\"text | article-text\">The women\u2019s team has declined Trump\u2019s invitation to the State of the Union address scheduled for Tuesday night. It\u2019s unclear whether they will attend any future events at the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\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,&#8221; a USA Hockey spokesperson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/us-womens-hockey-team-declines-trumps-invitation-state-union-rcna260299\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/us-womens-hockey-team-declines-trumps-invitation-state-union-rcna260299\">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<p class=\"text | article-text\">After the men\u2019s team arrived back home on U.S. soil, Hughes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/winterolympics\/article-15586847\/jack-hughes-team-usa-hockey-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/winterolympics\/article-15586847\/jack-hughes-team-usa-hockey-trump.html\">told The Daily Mail<\/a> he felt that people were \u201cmaking something out of almost nothing,\u201d referring to Trump\u2019s joke about inviting the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Gold medalists of the United States pose after the men's ice hockey gold medal game between...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/I2R2RF4IGNDQ3OPWAM6KSOMEVI.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>Gold medalists of the United States pose after the men&#8217;s ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hassan Ammar)(Hassan Ammar | AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cEveryone\u2019s giving us backlash for all the social media stuff today, but 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,\u201d Hughes told The Daily Mail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He added, \u201cPeople are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them [the women\u2019s team], how proud we are of them, and we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">When asked whether he was excited to meet Trump, Hughes said, \u201cYeah, we\u2019re excited. Everything is so political. We\u2019re athletes. We\u2019re so proud to represent the U.S. and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president, we\u2019re proud to be Americans and that\u2019s so patriotic. No matter what your views are, we\u2019re super excited to go to the White House tomorrow and be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Gray News) \u2014 Team USA hockey star Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal that secured the team\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,6755,224054,104227,152840,224267,48296,224268,3,13834,183914,42270,3479,21,19,22,20,25,24,3123,217285],"class_list":{"0":"post-488169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-hockey-team","11":"tag-invitation","12":"tag-jack-hughes","13":"tag-joke","14":"tag-kash-patel","15":"tag-mens-hockey-team","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-phone-call","18":"tag-state-of-the-union","19":"tag-team-usa","20":"tag-trump","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-white-house","28":"tag-womens-hockey-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}