Rapper Flavor Flav offered to throw a party for the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team that declined an invitation to the State of the Union from President Donald Trump, who made an offhand comment after the American men won gold.
The U.S. men’s and women’s ice hockey teams triumphed at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, both teams besting their Canadian counterparts in overtime to take home the gold. Talking on a speakerphone in the postgame locker room, Trump on Sunday extended an invitation to the White House to the men’s team, then added, “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.” The president later joked that if he didn’t extend the invitation, he would probably be impeached.
In a social media post shared Monday evening, Flav offered to host “a real celebration and invite” for the women’s team in Las Vegas, complete with “some nice dinners and shows and good times.” He added that the American bobsled and skeleton teams were also welcome to attend.
Flav, whose real name is Williams Jonathan Drayton Jr., also shared the formal invitation he sent to the U.S. women’s hockey team.
“We saw the story about the men’s invite to the White House, and the not quite invite for the women’s team,” it said, explaining that the rapper hoped to celebrate them in a way they deserve.
“If there is an interest for the team to come to Las Vegas and celebrate with Flav — we will figure it out on our end and make it a lovely experience,” the note concluded.
While the vast majority of the men’s team flew to Washington on Tuesday and visited Trump in the White House before being guests at the State of the Union, many of the women’s players were on the way back to their professional or college clubs.
USA Hockey, which said it was “honored” by the invitation, cited logistical issues as the major hurdle that prevented the women’s team from stopping by the White House. The team was originally scheduled to fly commercially into New York on Monday, but was forced to reroute through Atlanta due to a snowstorm in the Northeast.
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, Trump said the women’s hockey team will “soon” visit the White House.
Hilary Knight, a two-time gold medalist whose 15 goals and 33 points in Olympic competition are the most by a U.S. hockey player at the Games, doesn’t want to let what she called a “distasteful joke” by Trump get in the way of a historic performance by American women across all sports at the Milan Cortina Games.
“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts,” Knight told ESPN on Wednesday. “And continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time.”
Contributing: Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News; Associated Press