Sports

Jack Hughes Slams ‘Negative People’ Who Are Angry Over Trump Phone Call; Mother Ellen, Key In Women’s Team’s Success, Also Responds

#2026 Winter Olympics
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Team USA hero and Olympic gold medal Jack Hughes as responded to the negativity surrounding the U.S. Men’s hockey team following President Donald Trump’s viral comments about the women’s team. While speaking to the men’s team after their win over Canada, Trump suggested that he was politically obligated to give the women’s team the same treatment as the men’s.

While in Miami on Monday ahead of their celebration E11EVEN Nightclub, Jack Hughes — who scored the game-winning sudden death goal against Team Canada in the gold medal game — spoke to the media about the virtually instant backlash to the men’s hockey team following their phone call with Trump and locker room embrace of divisive FBI director Kash Patel.

“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump told the men’s team over the phone before adding if he didn’t, “I do believe I probably would be impeached.”

Team USA and New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes responds to the backlash to the U.S. Men’s hockey team’s phone call with President Trump after the gold medal game

“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,” Hughes told The Daily Mail.

“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.”

“Yeah, we’re excited. Everything is so political. We’re athletes,” Hughes said when asked about the team’s upcoming White House visit. “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.”

Making Hughes’ response even more interesting is the fact that his mother Ellen Hughes, a former USA Women’s Hockey Team player herself — who competed in the 1992 winter games in France — is currently a player development consultant for Team USA women’s ice hockey team. She, too, was asked about Trump’s comments.

“These players, both the men and women, can bring so much unity to a group and to a country. People that cheered on that don’t watch hockey, people that have politics on one side or on the other side, and that’s all both the men’s team and the women’s team care about,” Ellen Hughes told The Today Show.

“If you could see what we see from the inside, and the men and women sharing, you know, dorm rooms and halls and flex floors and the camaraderie and the synergy and the way the women cheered on the men and the way the men cheered on the women — that’s what it’s all about. And the other things they cannot control. They care about humanity. They care about unity and they care about the country.”

While it’s unclear whether or not Trump’s comments had any influence on their decision, the women’s hockey team has declined the invite to Washington D.C. to instead go party with Flavor Flav in Las Vegas.

What’s clear is this: none of these athletes should’ve been put in this position anyway. It isn’t Jack Hughes’ fault that the President simply could not help himself from making a backhanded remark about the women’s team, which would obviously become more scrutinized then ever given the ongoing revelations about his links to Jeffrey Epstein.