By Zach Sturgill

After the United States Olympic men’s hockey team won its first gold medal in 46 years on Feb. 22, the country finally felt united. However, that unity quickly turned to controversy.

During a phone call with President Donald Trump, in which he invited the team to his State of the Union address, Trump joked that he would have to invite the gold medal-winning women’s team as well, or else he would be impeached.

The comments were met with harsh criticism of both the president and the players on the men’s hockey team, who laughed at the joke and attended the State of the Union two days later. UMD students had a more measured reaction regarding these events.

Some students defended the hockey players, noting that the call happened so soon after their thrilling gold medal victory against Canada.

“They had just won the gold medal a few minutes before going on the phone with the president,” said sophomore computer science major Bojan Zivkovic. “I’m sure it was a crazy moment for them, and they didn’t know how to fully react to everything that was going on.”

Junior engineering major Benjamin Tran watched the gold medal games for both teams and believes that the attention should be on their triumph rather than the controversy.

“Both teams had really exciting overtime goals, and those wins were awesome to watch,” Tran said. “I feel like the attention should be on that rather than what happened after.”

Tran also mentioned that people do have the right to be upset over the phone call.

“I can get why people are upset over what happened,” Tran said. “I just think you have to put yourself in their shoes and see it from their perspective after winning such a big game.”

Since the men won the gold medal, several members of both teams have been asked to comment on President Trump’s joke. The hockey players remain consistent in their answers that both teams supported each other throughout the Winter Olympic Games and that the men’s phone call with the president should not take away from that.

Senior biology major Harry Mayilsamy echoed this viewpoint, believing that the support both teams showed each other was important for people to see.

“I wasn’t following what happened that much, but I did see a lot of the men’s players apologizing for laughing and the women’s team defending them,” Mayilsamy said. “It was cool to see how both teams still supported each other and were still united after all that had happened.”

Featured Image: A United States flag at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, on March 7, 2026. Photo by Anika Stikeleather.