Team USA hockey hero Jack Hughes has slammed ‘negative’ criticism of the Winter Olympics champions’ decision to accept Donald Trump‘s invite to the State of the Union and White House.
The men’s team has faced backlash for speaking with Trump in the locker room after their stunning 2-1 overtime victory over Canada on Sunday in which Hughes scored the winning goal.
On the call, Trump joked he would ‘be impeached’ if he didn’t extend the same invite to the women’s team, who also won gold in Milan, and it was met with huge laughter by the men.
Then, on Monday, the women’s team announced they were declining Trump’s invite to be part of the celebrations in Washington DC on Tuesday.
Speaking outside the team’s raucous Miami party on Monday night, Hughes told Daily Mail: ‘They’ve got busy schedules, too. Everyone is giving us backlash for all the social media stuff today.
‘People are so negative out there and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing.
‘Our relationship with them, over the course of being in the Athletes’ Village, I think we are so tight with their group. After we won the gold medal we were in the cafeteria at 3:30am in the morning with them and we go from there, pack our bags and we’re on the bus.
‘People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them and we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us.’
Asked whether the team was excited for their trip to meet Trump, Hughes continued: ‘Yeah, we’re excited.
‘Everything is so political. We’re athletes. We’re so proud to represent the US and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans and that’s so patriotic.
‘No matter what your views are we’re super excited to go to the White House tomorrow and be a part of that.’
Team USA hockey hero Jack Hughes has slammed ‘negative’ criticism of the gold medalists
The USA women’s team rejected Donald Trump’s invite to join the men in Washington DC