When the 1980 USA hockey team won the gold medal after taking down the mighty Soviet Union in the semifinals, then-President Jimmy Carter invited the team to the White House. But it wasn’t just the hockey team; it was all of America’s Winter Olympics medal-winning athletes.

Interestingly, there was a political controversy of sorts surrounding the athletes at that time — one they were pressed by the media to weigh in on. The issue was Carter’s decision to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Carter intended it as a rebuke of the Soviet Union over its invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

A number of U.S. winter Olympic athletes disagreed with Carter and expressed their solidarity with American summer athletes who would miss out on the Games. That said, the disagreement didn’t stop these athletes from enjoying a celebration at the White House hosted by Carter, where they were welcomed as American heroes. Despite concerns about potential political gamesmanship, given that it was an election year in which Carter was seeking a second term, it was widely understood that celebrating America’s Olympic champions was appropriate, as the entire nation could join in celebrating America’s Miracle on Ice.

Fast-forward 46 years, and once again America’s Olympic hockey team(s) are gold medal champions, with both the women’s and men’s teams vanquishing the daunting Canadians at their own game. Like Carter, President Donald Trump recognized the moment and the need to celebrate these American athletes. He invited both teams to attend his State of the Union and the White House.

CHAMPIONS IN THE HOUSE 🦅🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4yk7I9zqcs

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 24, 2026

The men accepted both invitations; the women are TBD on a White House visit. Even the Democrats stood up for the men when Trump noted their accomplishment and welcomed them into the gallery Tuesday night. Patriotism in sports should be seen as a uniting force above politics.

Unfortunately, for too many members of the Leftmedia, Trump Derangement Syndrome has prevented them from seeing the forest for the trees. They are blinded by politics, and in their childish reasoning, they believe that accepting Trump’s invitations is tantamount to endorsing all of his statements, policies, and actions.

HuffPost provides a perfect example, posting on X, “If waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA!’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone.” Why is that? Well, because when Trump called the team to congratulate them, he joked about being impeached if he didn’t also invite the women’s team.

Horrors.

But it’s far more than that. Charles C.W. Cooke, an English-born naturalized American citizen, has no trouble being patriotic. He sums up the controversy:

The charge against the men’s team seems to be four-fold. First, that, having won the gold, its members declined to address the “tide of fascism in the United States” and instead said gauche hyper-nationalistic things, such as, “This is all about our country right now,” “I love the USA,” “I’m so proud to be American today,” “This is for every American,” “It’s the greatest country in the world,” and “Everyone better be wearing the red, white, and blue for as long as they can.” Second, that during a post-game phone call with a rollicking President Trump, the players didn’t band together on the spot to push back against his supposedly sexist jokes — or apologize later for their complicity. Third, that the team subsequently agreed to go to the White House to celebrate their victory — and, even worse, that it seems excited by that prospect. Fourth, that the FBI director, Kash Patel, went over to Italy to watch the game and then chugged beer with the team in the locker room. Together, the sporting press is keen to inform us, these decisions have “sullied” the USA’s victory and ruined the reputations of its architects for all time.

This is the same Leftmedia that couldn’t get enough of mercenary turncoat Eileen Gu, who eschewed her American citizenship to make millions skiing for the Communist Chinese.

By contrast, the hockey players were happy they had the privilege of representing America before the watching world. They rejoiced and gloried in the fact that they are Americans, and that this championship was for all Americans, irrespective of their ethnic background or political makeup. These boys made us proud, and they should have made every true American proud.

Yet the inherently anti-American woke contagion has gripped and consumed the Left. They can see nothing positive in celebrating America; instead, they express embarrassment and shame at our nation’s success. And this, in a nutshell, is why America elected Donald Trump. Not only is it okay to feel pride for America in this moment, but we should feel pride every day for what our great nation is: the world’s leading defender of Liberty.