Op-Ed: Is Anyone Surprised by Trump’s Locker Room Call With the Men’s Hockey Team? No. Is It Still Disgusting? Absolutely

Not even the best Hollywood parodies could have prepared us for the reality of the United States in 2026. And yet, each new incident desensitizes us further to the terrifying, real-time vision of how this country is transforming into the epitome of fascism and misogyny.

After the men’s hockey team’s victory at the Winter Olympics, social media buzzed with a video that took us straight back to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The now-president spoke on the phone with the team in the locker room as they celebrated with FBI Director Kash Patel. Amid beer and orangutan cries, the President can be heard on speakerphone saying, “What would really be cool, and we’ll do the White House next time, we’ll just have some fun, we have medals for you guys. And we have to, I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that?”

Then Trump seemed to slight the women’s hockey team, adding, “I must tell you we’re going to have to bring the women, too; you do know that. Believe me, I probably would be impeached, OK?”

It was, once again, the same man we all heard say 10 years ago that you could do “anything” to women. The same man who is mentioned more times in the Epstein files than Jesus in the Bible.

Until then, hockey was having an epic moment in popular culture.

It’s yet another moment in the eternal whack-a-mole game the conservative religious right plays with any hint of social progress. Until the Olympics, hockey meant “Heated Rivalry,” meaning LGBTQ+ love and female desire. Once the Winter Games began, the women’s teams captured the public’s attention.

So what was the government’s response, and more specifically, the FBI’s? To hit them over the head and celebrate misogyny and toxic masculinity.

Trump’s ego fragility is obvious.

This was not an old man trying to be “cool” with the boys. It was another embarrassing scene of the fragile masculinity of the President of the United States. After the victory, Trump posted AI videos showing himself playing with the team and even hitting Canadian players.

And that is the only language spoken by the people now destroying the last remnants of post-World War II democracy: macho men beating their chests to demonstrate a power they clearly lack outside the office.

The saddest part? This will not make him any less popular.

Maybe it’s time to understand, once and for all, that this is precisely the President the majority of Americans who are going to vote want. There are no more excuses, though many of us never needed them. This is the man millions of people in the United States defend tooth and nail. This is the reality certain voters want to condemn the rest of the world to.

Because yes, the rest of the world has to deal with U.S. elections too. Just ask Ukraine, Greenland, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and now Mexico.

And if everything that has happened in the last 14 months doesn’t make everyone go out and vote en masse this November, then we really have no hope.