The gold medal-winning US men’s Olympic hockey team met with President Trump inside the Oval Office on Tuesday – hours before the squad is set to attend the State of the Union address.
During the team’s White House visit, winger Matthew Tkachuk let Trump don his gold medal.
“I’m not giving it back,” Trump joked as he put on the medal, which was met with laughter from Tkachuk’s teammates.
Trump invited the Olympic champion men and women’s hockey teams to his State of the Union address, which will get underway at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
The women’s team declined the invitation, citing previous schedule conflicts.
Due to the last-minute invite, house speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that they were racing to figure out the logistics.
“There’s no way to have special guests on the floor because it’s a literal session of Congress,” Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday. “But we’re going to work and do what we can to accommodate.”
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Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal to seal the 2-1 win for Team USA over Canada, said that the team was “super excited” to meet with Trump and attend the State of the Union.
“We’re so proud to represent the US, and when you get the chance to go to the White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans, and that’s so patriotic,” Hughes told the Daily Mail Monday outside the team’s Miami party.
“No matter what your views are, we’re super excited to go to the White House tomorrow and be a part of that,” he added.
The team departed Miami on board an Air Force plane a couple of hours ago and videos from their Instagram accounts show them taking the phrase “traveling party” literally.
The Olympic champions arrived back in South Florida from Milan on Monday afternoon and celebrated their achievement with a steak dinner, followed by partying the night away at famed Miami nightclub E11even.
