The American men’s hockey team’s gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Olympics was such a special moment that even President Donald Trump wanted to get in on the fun.
A video surfaced shortly after Team USA’s golden-goal victory, showing Trump on the phone with the team in its locker room, hyping goalie Connor Hellebuyck and inviting the players to attend the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The victory galvanized sports fans across the country and inspired a classic monologue from Mike Tirico, encouraging unity in the face of division and for young fans to draw inspiration from the game that they can take forward in their lives. But the insertion of Trump into the celebration drew the ire of a vocal contingent of fans online, given that it came as Trump faces plummeting support resulting from multiple civilian deaths at the hands of federal officers and the release of the Epstein files.
His apparant joke that he would have to also invite the U.S. women’s hockey team, which elicited laughter from the men’s team, also did not go over very well (the women’s team declined an invite on Monday).
Mostly, many seem tired of Trump’s presence at major sporting events and don’t want him to intrude on memorable moments.
In a monologue on FS1’s Wake Up Barstool on Monday, Dave Portnoy ripped those detractors, arguing that anyone who isn’t in support of Trump’s locker-room celebration is a “psychopath.”
“People are mad, they’re going nuts. ‘How could the hockey team laugh, why are they talking to the president?’ This should be a barometer of whether you’re a psychopath,” Portnoy said.
“If the president calls after you win the gold medal. I don’t care, if you don’t want to talk to him, fine. But to get mad when (someone else) talks to the President of the United States, and he’s just congratulating them, chumming around. If this speech made you mad, you need to take a valium and maybe just take a thousand steps back. Because there’s nothing to be mad about when a president congratulates a gold medal-winning team.”
Notably, the person holding the phone so Trump could speak with the team was FBI Director Kash Patel.
Continuing his rant, Portnoy added that there is no reason to be frustrated by Patel’s appearance post-game, either.
“Even the Kash Patel, that’s going viral. People are mad there. I feel like at all Olympics, you see president, Secretary of State, so (is) the director of the FBI,” Portnoy said.
“If I’m the director of the FBI and they invite me into the locker room, I will be there in the locker room. But you always see politicians. Why are people suddenly mad that he’s there? There’s politicians across the world at these games.”
According to numerous reports, Patel has repeatedly drawn scrutiny for blurring the lines between personal travel and government work. As FBI director, he reportedly must use government aircraft for all travel for national security. But trips like this one to watch the gold medal game are seen by some as unnecessary, especially given how important the FBI director’s work is to the country.
Some, including the camp Portnoy appears to be referring to, will reflexively take issue with any MAGA politician in any circumstance. In this case, Trump and Patel are embroiled together in numerous controversies, including the secrecy around the Epstein files.
For many concerned Americans, seeing the incredibly polarizing administration at the Olympics is a reminder of these problems and that the country is going in a direction that they do not agree with.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.