Following their historic 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the gold-medal game at the Olympics on Sunday, Team USA received a video call from President Trump.
With FBI Director Kash Patel celebrating with the players in the victorious locker room, Patel held up his cell phone so Trump could address the team.
He proceeded to invite Team USA to the State of the Union address Tuesday night in Washington, D.C.
“We’re in!” a group of players shouted.
Since the players will be flying into Miami because of the blizzard in the Northeast, the players asked if the military plane could pick them up there.
“We’ll get Kash or we’ll get the military to get you guys over,” Trump replied, triggering more cheers from the athletes.
Trump concluded the call by saying, “We love you guys. Congratulations … I’m going to shake hands with everybody, but I got to shake hands with that goalie [Connor Hellebuyck]!”
Team USA captain Auston Matthews explained what it was like to get the call from Trump.
“We’re all proud Americans, obviously,” he said. “This is a huge moment for us, a huge moment for the United States. [Trump] called. Just congratulated us … It’s an honor to wear this jersey and represent the U.S. To go home with a gold medal, you know how much that means to guys in this room, to people watching and rooting us on, too.”
Still, he wouldn’t confirm that the whole team would make the State of the Union.
“I think there’s a lot of moving parts as far as our travels back home. We’ll kind of see what happens, but obviously it’s an honor to wear this jersey and to represent the U.S.,” Matthews continued. “To go home with a gold medal, I mean, you know how much that means to the guys in this room and how much it means to all the people watching and rooting us on, too.”
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