A member of the winning U.S. Men’s Hockey Team let Donald Trump try on his Olympic gold medal during a visit to the Oval Office ahead of the State of the Union — and the president joked he was “not giving it back.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the Republican president hosted most of the members of the U.S. men’s hockey team at the White House after their historic gold-medal-winning game at the Winter Olympics in Italy over the weekend. The match against longtime rivals Team Canada, which ended in sudden-death overtime, marked the U.S. team’s first Olympic tourney victory since 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.”
During a photo-op in the White House, Team USA and Florida Panthers hockey player Matthew Tkachuk offered to let Trump try on his hardware.
“Yeah, I’ll put it on,” the 79-year-old president — who is not shy about his love for medals and all things gold — said while sitting behind the Resolute desk. As he grabbed the award and draped it around his neck, he quipped, “I’m not giving it back.”
The room erupted in laughter.
“Hey, that’s cool,” Trump said. “I never thought I’d ever have this on.”
“I’ll trade you that for a pen,” Tkachuk joked back, pointing at a row of pens situated on the desk.
Trump’s meeting with the men’s team comes just hours before his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill, during which he’s expected to highlight his record on the economy, immigration and foreign affairs. Trump is attempting to make room for the men’s hockey team to watch his speech, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The U.S. women’s hockey team — which also won the gold medal — declined the president’s White House invitation after audio surfaced of him joking taht he was compelled to also invite the women or he’d face impeachment.
Trump wasn’t the only one to be handed a token of appreciation following the men’s hockey team’s victory. On Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Defense posted a photo on X of Team USA player Connor Hellebuyck holding a “Secretary of Defense” plaque. It was captioned “AMERICA’S SECRETARY OF DEFENSE!”
The president has a long history of accepting other peoples’ awards — or being gifted new awards tailor-made just for him.
In January, Trump accepted the Nobel Peace Prize medal from Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. She presented it to him in a gold frame during a White House meeting, accompanied by a letter thanking him for his “extraordinary leadership.”
And, in December, Trump won FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize. The newly created award was given to him in recognition of his efforts to resolve conflicts around the world.
Most recently, mining executives handed the president a shiny trophy, naming him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.”
