After being presented with an Olympic gold medal, President Donald Trump joked that he was “not giving it back.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the Republican president hosted members of the U.S. men’s hockey team at the White House after their historic gold-winning game at the Winter Olympics in Italy at the weekend. The match against Canada, which ended in sudden-death overtime, marked the team’s first victory since 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.”
During a photo-op in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Team USA hockey player Matthew Tkachuk offered to let Trump wear his gold medal.
“Yeah, I’ll put it on,” the 79-year-old president said while sitting behind the Resolute desk. As he grabbed the award and draped it around his neck, he quipped, “I’m not giving it back.”
The room erupted into laughter.
“Hey, that’s cool,” Trump said. “I never thought I'd ever have this on.”
“I’ll trade you that for a pen,” Tkachuk told the president, pointing at a row of pens situated on the desk.
Trump’s meeting with the men’s team comes just hours before his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill, during which he’s expected to highlight his record on the economy, immigration and foreign affairs. Trump is attempting to make room for the men’s hockey team to watch his speech, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The U.S. women’s hockey team — which also won the gold medal — declined the president’s White House invitation after he told the men’s team that he’d face impeachment if he didn’t also invite the women.
Trump wasn't the only one to be handed a token of appreciation following the men’s hockey team’s victory. On Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Defense posted a photo on X of Team USA player Connor Hellebuyck holding a "Secretary of Defense” plaque. It was captioned “AMERICA’S SECRETARY OF DEFENSE!”
The president has a long history of accepting other peoples’ awards — or being gifted new awards tailor-made just for him.
In January, Trump accepted the Nobel Peace Prize medal from Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. She presented it to him in a gold frame during a White House meeting, accompanied by a letter thanking him for his “extraordinary leadership.”
And, in December, Trump won FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize. The newly created award was given to him in recognition of his efforts to resolve conflicts around the world.
Most recently, mining executives handed the president a shiny trophy, naming him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.”