Jim Souhan: Olympic men's hockey team allowed itself to be used by Donald Trump

Jim Souhan, Star Tribune on Feb 26, 2026

Published in Olympics

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MINNEAPOLIS — Most of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team has chosen not to criticize the men’s team. That’s nice of them. We should also acknowledge that women athletes shouldn’t constantly be expected to serve as social justice warriors, even though many of them handle that role exceptionally well.

When men do something stupid or disgusting, men should call them out.

So let’s welcome home the members of the Wild who performed so well in helping the United States men win their first Olympic gold medal since 1980.

That 1980 team is still reaping the benefits of their historic victory. The 2026 team won’t be remembered as kindly by many of us.

Their team leaders allowed Kash Patel, FBI director and part of an administration that sent masked thugs to Minnesota to terrorize us, to celebrate in their locker room.

President Donald Trump told them on the phone that if he invited the men’s team to the White House, “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” as if doing so would dishonor the White House.

Most of the men laughed. Because misogyny is so funny.

The men’s team accepted the invitation to the White House. The women declined their invitation.

The men allowed themselves to be paraded around as supporters of someone who gave the women every reason to decline their invitation.

The men hung out with a man who was sued by E. Jean Carroll for sexually abusing and defaming her. Carroll won the case, and the judge presiding over the case said that Trump was guilty of raping her.

Dozens of women have accused Trump of sexual assault.

Trump has been found guilty of 34 felonies.

A report from NPR this week said the Justice Department has withheld some of the Epstein files “related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor. … It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.”

MS Now reported this week that the Justice Department “has withheld notes and memos reflecting FBI interviews from its release of the Epstein files, including interviews with a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor.”

Perhaps most damning, Trump’s Justice Department has delayed releasing the full Epstein files, and has heavily redacted what has been released, because there is so much to hide.

I’m not sure which was more insulting to women — that the men accepted Trump’s invitation, or that Trump thought the women would accept one.

The men could have declined their invitation as a show of solidarity or decency. They didn’t.

The Wild’s Olympic traveling party — President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin, forward Matt Boldy and defensemen Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber — have done their jobs exceedingly well in the NHL, and they contributed heavily to a brilliant run of Olympic hockey.

They also reminded us that there is a vast difference between winning games and being a hero.