The US men’s hockey team at the State of the Union showed proximity to Trump is never neutral | USA ice hockey team
During the State of the Union presentation on Tuesday, Donald Trump welcomed members of the United States men’s national hockey team to the House gallery to the sounds of “USA, USA!” “. Trump revealed that Team USA goalie Connor Hellebuyck will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “What special champions you are,” Trump told the players who beat Canada Sunday in the Winter Olympics final.
In Trump’s America, proximity is never neutral.
While the hockey players were greeted with warm applause from both Republicans and Democrats, Trump also used the team as a prop in his speech. “Our country is winning again,” Trump said just before introducing them. “To prove that point, we have a group of winners here tonight who have made the entire nation proud.”
The players found themselves in Trump’s orbit for the first time on Sunday. A video widely shared online after the team’s victory in Milan showed the players listening as Trump extended an invitation to the White House. Trump added: “I have to tell you, we’re going to have to bring in the women’s team. » Many American players laughed – which was widely interpreted as derisive. “People are so negative over there,” Jack Hughes, the scorer in the U.S. victory, said later, referring to the negative reaction that followed the video. The team was excited to go, Hughes said. “It’s all so political. We’re athletes,” he said. “When you get a chance to go to the White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans, and it’s so patriotic.”
Hughes is right about one thing. With Trump, everything is political. And although sports and politics have long collided, those collisions have become more intense under Trump’s presidency. We seem to argue endlessly about who is allowed to participate or who is American enough to sing at the Super Bowl. Each issue is addressed by advocates and pundits, each seemingly a separate conversation. Overall, the sport revolves around a central question of the Trump era: Who is loyal?
Last winter, Trump suddenly became interested in hockey. It was February and the United States was facing Canada in the NHL’s mid-season Four Nations tournament. In previous weeks, Trump had considered annexing Canada to make it the 51st US state. Canada won this round, but Trump didn’t forget hockey. In January, after Canada announced a tariff deal with China, Trump warned that China would “take over Canada” and that his first action would be to “end ice hockey.” A few weeks later, during a social media rant about the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Ontario and Michigan, Trump did it again, speculating that China would “eat Canada alive” and would “eliminate ALL ice hockey games played in Canada and eliminate the Stanley Cup for good.”
It wasn’t just about trade. It was a question of hierarchy. About who defers to whom. These comments also followed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney upstaging Trump at Davos, and Trump subsequently withdrawing his invitation for Carney to join the Peace Council. Ultimately, Trump’s focus on hockey comes down to Canada’s refusal to fall in line. Trump’s view of the world, and of North America specifically, is that this country belongs to him – or, at the very least, that he should do what he says. Seen in this light, hockey, as a Canadian sport, is just another leverage, something to threaten when things don’t go Trump’s way. Nice little game you have there, too bad something happens to it.
Yet even within the men’s hockey team, the unity projected from the House gallery and the Oval Office was not complete. A handful of players — including four from Minnesota, where the Trump administration implemented an immigration crackdown — were absent Tuesday. They offered different reasons — and none of them specifically condemned Trump — but the distance was more telling, whether intentionally or not. The divide was even more visible elsewhere. The entire U.S. women’s national team, ice hockey’s other gold-medal team, declined her invitation — gracefully, it should be noted, despite the apparent snub, but perhaps with a better understanding of how participation is an affirmation. (Trump mentioned in his Tuesday speech that women would be heading to the Oval Office “soon,” but there has been no official confirmation.) Showing up is a statement. The same goes for staying away. The women’s team knows it. Carney too.
It’s no surprise that Trump isn’t as kind to all American athletes as he has been to the men’s hockey team. Earlier in the Games, American freestyle skier Hunter Hess was asked how it felt representing America amid the ongoing brutal crackdown on immigration. “Just because I carry the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s happening in the United States,” Hess responded. Online, Trump chastised the skier: “Hess, a real loser, says he’s not representing his country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have been on the team and it’s a shame he’s on it.” It’s all so political.
Hughes and others want to keep things simple: athletes and politics are separate. But that was never the case. And now more than ever, in Trump’s America, athletes – just like allies and enemies – are expected to take their place in the hierarchy. To prove their loyalty both to America and to the man who claims to define it. Or else.
