Donald Trump Shades 'Most' U.S. Sports Teams While Hosting Olympians and Paralympians at the White House: 'Some of Them I Don't Like So Much'

President Donald Trump told a group of America's Winter Olympians and Paralympians that he does not like some of the sports teams he hosts at the White House.

The insult came on Thursday, August 6, during an East Room reception honoring Team USA's record-breaking performance at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games.

While offering the athletes a tour of the Oval Office, Trump stated in a video later published on X, "I don’t do this with too many other teams. Most of them I just want to get out of there."

He then added, "Some of them I like and some of them I don't like so much. But they all come here.”

Trump heavily praised the attending delegation, calling them "perhaps the greatest group of winter Olympians in American history.”

Roughly 100 out of over 300 eligible athletes attended the celebration. While many absences were due to active competitive and training schedules, some athletes publicly declined the invitation due to political differences.

Ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, along with freestyle skier Hunter Hess, are among the notable 2026 Winter Olympians whose absences from the White House celebration involved political tension.

While approximately 60 percent of the eligible Team USA Winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes did not attend the reception, the vast majority cited non-political scheduling conflicts, ongoing training or professional commitments.

However, a few specific athletes made headlines due to political friction or protests, including the ice-dancing duo, who explicitly stated in a social media video posted just before the event that they did not want to attend the White House celebration.

The skaters explicitly expressed their intent to avoid the trip, with clips showing them saying variations of "I don't want to see him" about the president.

Hess was not on the attendee list after a public spat with the president, previously stating he had "mixed emotions" about representing the United States on the global stage under the current administration, prompting Trump to call him a "real loser" publicly.

The gold-medal winning U.S. Women's Olympic Hockey Team originally made headlines by politely declining Trump's invitation to attend the State of the Union address earlier in the year.

While the timing sparked heavy political speculation online, a USA Hockey spokesperson and team representatives clarified that the decision was strictly due to travel fatigue, post-game recovery, and pre-existing academic and professional commitments.

Two members of the team, Abbey Murphy and Joy Dunne, did ultimately attend the August reception.

Key players on the men’s hockey team who skipped earlier opportunities to visit — such as Jake Guentzel, Kyle Connor, Brock Nelson, Jake Oettinger, and Jackson LaCombe — did so, allegedly, to return to their respective NHL cities for immediate regular-season family and team obligations, explicitly stating that their absences were not a political protest.