Last night’s State of the Union address, the first of President Donald Trump’s second term, contained a number of lengthy tangents.
The longest of these deviations involved welcoming the men’s hockey players of Team USA, who recently took the gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics. The crowd offered the players several lengthy, raucous rounds of applause, as well as numerous chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
After showering the team in adulation, Trump singled out goalie Connor Hellebuyck, joking with him for several moments – as time away from his speech continued ticking by – before announcing that he would be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “I want to thank you all,” Trump said to the players. “What a special job you did. What special champions you are.”
And Team USA loved it.
They smiled, and waved, and laughed when they were supposed to, and posed for photographs with their Olympic medals, and with one another. When chants of “U-S-A!” rang out, they joined in, fists pumped high and fast with each repeat.
Well, the camaraderie makes sense – they and Trump do have a rapport now, after all. In a leaked video taken in the locker room following the team’s win in overtime against the Canadians, the president could be heard inviting the group to the White House. He then added that “we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” while jokingly implying that he’d be impeached if he failed to do so. The team had a good laugh in response.
Since the leak, other men have taken to social media to defend the interaction. “There’s nothing better than celebrating with the fellas. Inviting the ladies just changes the dynamic,” Barstool Sports correspondent Jordan Demcher posted on X about the notion of excluding the women Olympians from celebrations. “Every player on the U.S. roster respects the hell out of the women’s team…but you don’t get to just let it rip when the ladies are around.”
It’s noteworthy, what men write off as a joke, including our exclusion. In service of our exclusion.
I wonder if these men ever pause to think about such matters from our perspective. I wonder if any of the men’s hockey players, of the 20 who went to the State of the Union, were hesitant to attend. I wonder if they considered declining, as five of their teammates did – as well as the entirety of the women’s team, all of them citing travel-related reasons.
I wonder if those young men considered refusing the accolades outright.
Some may think it’s unfair for me to ask them to deny what is, on its face, a significant opportunity – but truthfully, I would expect any person to interrogate who is giving out the distinctions on offer to them. Are they someone you respect, and admire? Is it a body that is known for its integrity and honor? And if it’s not, are those prizes really something you want?
Does an invite to the State of the Union, or the Presidential Medal of Freedom, mean anything when it comes from a man who hurts women, and all of the most vulnerable among us, through policy and rhetoric alike? And not just once but over, and over, and over, and over again? Is it worth compromising on all of that, just for the chance to wave to another crowd, and get another medal?
No. What we have here are grown men, at the height of professional triumph – behaving like absolute losers.
This willingness among men, to go along with the harm their fellow men perpetrate, all in pursuit of social reward… it isn’t just evident in anecdotes such as these. It’s also research-backed social science. Indeed, numerous studies have shown men to be complicit in the harming of women at best, and actively part of the problem at worst. And they are this way more often than not.
One cannot simply roll their eyes at this phenomenon, either – or the lameness behind it – because it’s central to why women struggle to navigate this world with any form of ease. How can we be anything but cautious and stressed when we see men being so willing, time and time again, to stand back as we’re mocked, disrespected, harmed and silenced? Men who will laugh along when we’re made fun of – or worse, join in hurting us?
There were, thankfully, several people in attendance who were willing to take a stand against Trump. Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were especially loud – and at one point, impossible to ignore – while branding the president as a “murderer” and more.
For their trouble, Trump dismissed them and their ilk as “crazy.” I wonder if the men’s hockey players of Team USA laughed at that line, too. ◼️
