Hughes brothers wore Trump hats in Team USA's visit to the White House

Andrew Joseph

In the aftermath of the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team's historic gold medal win over Canada, there was hope that Team USA would be able to avoid turning their sporting achievement into a divisive political moment.

Those hopes were dashed in mere minutes.

We've already seen the team's phone call with Donald Trump in which the U.S. president made a disparaging remark about the gold medal-winning women's team to the laughter of the men's players. In that same call (on FBI director Kash Patel's phone), Trump invited the team to Washington to visit the White House and attend the State of the Union address Tuesday night.

After the video of the call went viral, Team USA stars Jack and Quinn Hughes tried to distance themselves from that politicization and criticism. But in that same D.C. visit, the Hughes brothers were photographed wearing Trump USA hats alongside Karoline Leavitt. Sabres center Tage Thompson went as far as to wear an actual MAGA hat in the photo.

Again, Jack had dismissed the notion of making a political choice to attend Trump's address. But by wearing that hat, he made an explicit political statement, signaling the visit was as much about meeting Trump as it was about simply visiting the White House as a gold medalist.

Jack, who scored the winning goal, is set to return to New Jersey for the Devils' Wednesday night game against Buffalo. We'll have to see if he's asked to speak more about the hat choice. Quinn and the Wild play on Thursday night in Denver.