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Brady Tkachuk is back with his Ottawa Senators, and he stood his ground when faced with a question about the viral moment Team USA laughed at a joke President Donald Trump made about the women’s ice hockey team during a phone call after both teams won gold medals in Milan.
As players like Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman admitted, the players should have reacted differently.
Tkachuk was responding to a reporter’s question about the moment Trump said he would “have to” invite the women’s team, which also defeated Canada at the Olympics, to Tuesday’s State of the Union or he would “probably be impeached.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Tkachuk said when a reporter asked if he understood the women’s team felt displeased with the men’s team’s reaction. “I have no comment other than the things we can control. We supported them. They supported us. Can’t control what other people say.”
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Brady Tkachuk (7) and Matthew Tkachuk (19) of the United States celebrate after their match against Team Canada during the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milan Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 22, 2026. (Geoff Burke/Imagn Images)
Tkachuk added that it was “fun” to be around the women’s team while in Milan.
“It was fun to watch them play, fun to see the expertise they brought to every game and how they are by far the best team in that tournament,” he said. “It was just fun watching them pick their brains. They picked our brains and it was just fun to be around them.”
Tkachuk was asked a follow-up question about why he would laugh at Trump’s joke. Again he stood his ground.
“It was a whirlwind of a moment. You can’t really control what someone says, and I think it captured [us] kind of off guard,” he said. “I mean, when you’re talking to the president 10 minutes after you’ve just achieved your dream, just the fact that you’re talking to him,
“You can’t really believe where your life is, where you’re talking to the president of the United States after you’ve just won a gold medal.”
Tkachuk was with his American teammates for Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, and the chamber gave the team a standing ovation as the players displayed their Olympic gold medals
The women’s team declined an invitation to Washington, DC, citing “previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.” Trump said at the State of the Union address that the women’s team will visit the White House “soon.”
Brady Tkachuk of the United States celebrates after winning the gold medal during the men’s gold medal match against Canada at the Milan Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics February 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images)
USA Hockey responded to Trump’s suggestion that the team would go to the White House.
“The players are back in competition with their professional and collegiate teams and are in the middle of their season,” a USA Hockey spokesperson told Front Office Sports. “They are honored and grateful to be invited, and any opportunity to visit the White House as a team will be based on their schedules once their seasons end.”
While there has been controversy on social media about the moment, Ellen Hughes, mother of Jack and Quinn Hughes, who played a role in Team USA’s fate in Milan as a player development officer with the women’s team, did not seem bothered by Trump’s comments.
“These players, both men and women, can bring so much unity to a group and a country,” she told “Today.” “People who were cheering, who don’t watch hockey, people who have politics on one side or the other, and that’s all that both the men’s team and the women’s team care about.
Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators warms up before a game against the Nashville Predators on October 13, 2025 at the Canadian Tire Center in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (André Ringuette/NHLI)
“If you could see what we see from the inside and the men and women sharing, you know, dorms and halls and flexible 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,” she added.
“And the other things they can’t control. They care about humanity. They care about unity and they care about the country.”
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