For the first time in history, the USA women’s hockey team and the USA men’s hockey team both won gold at the same Olympic Winter Games.

The men’s team last won gold in 1980, against Finland, shortly after defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union in a match that stunned and sustained a weary nation. The game against the Soviets, which inspired the fantastic movie “Miracle,” happened exactly 46 years — to the day — before the USA men’s team grabbed the gold this year.

If you saw this year’s win, you know it was epic. Team USA beat rival Canada 2-1 in overtime. Jack Hughes gave up some teeth a few minutes before scoring the winning goal, making for the hockey-iest of all hockey photos when he grinned, bloodily, and wrapped himself, literally, in the flag. When it was time for team photos, the players brought the children of hockey player Johnny Gaudreau, killed in 2024 by an alleged drunk driver, onto the ice and posed with Gaudreau’s jersey. A beautiful event, start to finish.

The women’s hockey team also beat rival Canada. Also 2-1. Also in overtime. Also for the gold.

This is the women’s team’s third gold (1998, 2018, 2026), in addition to their four silvers (2002, 2010, 2014, 2022) and one bronze (2006). But women weren’t competing in Olympic hockey the last time the men won gold. So this year was historic on top of historic. Emotional, beautiful, unifying.

Then the president called.

He congratulated the men on their gold and invited them to his State of the Union address and he told them they’d have a lot of fun and he had some additional medals for them. And then he added this: "I must tell you, we're gonna have to bring the women's team. You do know that. I do believe I probably would be impeached.”

Hahaha girls are such a buzzkill. But you know, hahaha, gotta pretend they matter!

You’re either appalled by that call or you’re amused by that call. You’re not surprised by that call. Not from the guy who just scolded CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins for not smiling and bragged on tape about grabbing women’s privates and blurted “Quiet, piggy” to a female Bloomberg News reporter aboard Air Force One when she asked him about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Love this shtick or loathe this shtick, you are no longer caught off guard by this shtick. As predictable as ants at a picnic.

Except here’s the thing. Last February, a month after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, he made a big, celebratory deal about championing women’s sports.

“President Donald J. Trump Protects Safety, Fairness, and Dignity in Women’s Sports,” the White House website announced, alongside an early executive order. The president campaigned heavily on his vow to uphold the promise of Title IX and advocate for equal opportunity for women and girls in sports.

The executive order bans “the dangerous and unfair participation of men in women’s sports,” which is how his administration describes trans athletes. The order prohibits transgender female athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports at all levels and threatens to withdraw federal funding from any public elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions that allows them. (It doesn’t prohibit transgender male athletes from competing on male sports teams.)

A curious use of time and resources, given that transgender athletes make up a minuscule fraction of participants in sports. In December 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified before a Senate panel that he knew of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes out of 510,000 athletes total.

But dehumanizing and demonizing trans people was also something the president campaigned heavily on and remains committed to following through on. And if it wasn’t already abundantly clear that none of this was really about “safety, fairness and dignity in women’s sports,” that call made it so.

The president did invite the women’s hockey team to his State of the Union address, and the team declined. (As did five players from the men’s team.)

They’ll find other ways to celebrate. Rapper and Winter Olympics hype man Flavor Flav posted on his social channels shortly after the president’s call: “If the USA Women's Hockey Team wants a real celebration and invite … I'll host them in Las Vegas. Do some nice dinners and shows and good times. I'm sure I can get a hotel and airline to help me out here and celebrate these women for real for real.”

Cosmopolitan magazine, meanwhile, launched a toll-free hotline — 1-833-SHE-WON1 — for fans to leave a congratulatory message for the women’s team. They soon heard from senators, activists, coaches and fans around the country.

The country, as divided as it can feel, has a way of making lemonade out of this president’s lemons.

Bad Bunny drew 128.2 million people to his Super Bowl halftime show, even after the administration’s incessant criticism leading up to the Super Bowl.

Texas Democrat James Talarico raised $2.5 million for his U.S. Senate bid in the 24 hours following the FCC pushing off his “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” appearance from CBS — his largest single fundraising period for the campaign.

I’m not trying to silver-lining a vengeful, spiteful, divisive presidential administration. But I do think it’s worth noting that the American people, bless our souls, tend to rally around the latest object of its ire.

Which brings us back to hockey.

Does protecting safety, fairness and dignity in women’s sports include mocking them from the highest office in the land? It does not. Do three gold, four silver and one bronze feel like enough medals for the women’s hockey team to be taken seriously? They do. Would it have been lovely and unifying for the women’s and men’s back-to-back victories to be equally celebrated? It would.

But sometimes we have to settle for clarity. Maybe, hopefully, on the way toward unity.

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