On Sunday, Feb. 22, the men’s U.S. Olympic hockey team won its first gold medal in 46 years. While citizens and sports fans alike were excited by this feat, unfortunately, this is not what the American people are talking about. Soon after the win, the inspiring energy was quickly shifted to outrage as a seemingly behind-the-scenes video in the men’s locker room was released to the public.
In this video, FBI director Kash Patel is seen screaming and guzzling a bottle of beer, before shaking the bottle in the air and slamming his fists on a nearby table. Patel was also viewed on the phone with President Donald Trump, who, via speaker phone, invited the men’s hockey team to attend yesterday’s State of the Union speech.
After the invitation, the President made additional remarks.
“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” President Trump said while chuckling. “I do believe I would probably get impeached.”
Then everyone who was present seemingly responded with laughter.
While it is no surprise that President Trump would behave in such a crude manner, many people felt disappointed in the actions of the hockey players.
Grand Rapids Community College students shared their opinions on the matter, some of which aimed frustration at the current administration and the lack of respect for women as a systemic issue.
“It kind of shows that Trump is definitely misogynistic,” said Elise Isenbeck, 18, of Kent County. “Anyone who says he isn’t after all this is just ridiculous.”
Charles Hoebeke, 25, of Caledonia, shared a similar sentiment: “Yeah, I would agree it sounds pretty misogynistic.”
While a misogynistic tone is at play here, students also recognize the role of President Trump.
“I mean, it’s just kind of a perfect example of how little he (Trump) thinks of women in general,” Elijah Kortenhoven, 22, Grand Rapids, said. “I wish that it would play into more of people’s perception of him, but, you know, some people just don’t seem to care.”
Other students also noted President Trump’s double standard.
“It’s insulting to the women’s team who won the same thing as the men,” Isenbeck stated. “They won the same thing, play the same sport, and won equal things.”
Hoebeke said, “It sounded like the women were an afterthought.”
XaVier Johnson, 19, of Grand Rapids, characterized the President’s behavior as immature in addition to creating a double standard between the two teams.
“I am currently disappointed in (their) behavior because, like, they’re all adults, right? If you’re so finicky about inviting women to an event when they clearly deserve praise and acceptance, especially if you’re only thinking about… the men’s team, that is a double standard,” Johnson said. “(It’s) not a very… presidential or adult thing to do.”
Lily Binkley, 18, of Holland, shared how uneasy she feels about the direction America is headed and what the future holds for generations to come. “I did see what President Trump called the hockey team, and was making kind of some not-nice comments about women. Terrible. That’s what I mean about the red pill of just making it seem like it’s okay, normalizing it. That’s scary.
“That is what we want to get away from… I want to feel safe in this country. I want the future generations of boys and girls to feel safe and happy,” Binkley further explained. “Normalizing those small comments, they build. I feel like that stuff is so normalized in our day and age, and I think that there needs to be a big push away from that. I did not like his comments at all.”
Although many students felt uncomfortable and disheartened by the words and actions of President Trump and those involved, not everyone was offended.
“I think maybe the phone call was blown out of proportion,” said Carson Redd, 21, of Macomb, who said he believed not everyone had ill intent.
“I really don’t think that it was meant to be a knock towards the women’s team at all, you know, from the players themselves,” Redd explained. “I don’t think it was very indicative of how they feel, and I don’t think it’s very fair to lump them all under one category because of one video we saw.”
In addition to President Trump’s remark, the video brought to light a concept called “locker-room talk,” which a few students seemed to acknowledge as a real phenomenon in male communities.
Hoebeke thought back to his own high school experience and said, “I think it’s pretty common, even when I was in high school, generally the locker room is kind of like Fight Club.”
Tomorsky was under the same impression but did not think that the hockey players should have engaged with the inappropriate behavior, and stated, “As a representation of our country, they should not have laughed, like they are men in a locker room doing locker room talk,” Tomorsky stated.
While a few decades ago, people would have been able to get away with inappropriate behavior carried out in locker rooms, the broadcasting of locker room antics on social media offers zero privacy. Hoebeke noted a similar thought.
“You know what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room,” Hoebeke said. “But nowadays, anything that happens is never really private, just ‘cause of social media.”
Not only were students concerned with the normalization of misogynistic treatment against women, but many also commented on what they viewed as Patel’s bizarre and unprofessional behavior.
“I do think it’s kind of odd. Just a little bit that he privately flew over there to party with them in their locker room, and I think it’s kind of unprofessional,” Rihanna Thomas, 19, of Kent County said.
Rafael Viveros Barrbars, 19, shared a similar thought, “It’s really embarrassing, really. I understand that we should celebrate, like, we won the Olympics, but it’s hugely unprofessional, especially for someone with the position of Director of the FBI.”
Johnson acknowledged the excitement of winning a gold medal but also noted that now is an odd time to party with the hockey players in their locker room.
“I’m okay with certain people going there to invigorate American spirit sometimes, right? That’s an important thing, it’s the Olympics, it’s for nationality a lot of the time,” Johnson said. “If the vice president were to go there, I wouldn’t be particularly mad about that.”
Vice President J. D. Vance was notably in attendance at several of the Winter 2026 Olympic games.
Barrbars also noted other current issues within the context of Patel’s position and said, “Just right now I was watching a video on it, and it’s like, he has the Epstein files going on, he also has the disappearance of the mother of that news reporter (Savannah Guthrie) that’s still ongoing. Doing this when you got all that? It’s ridiculous, and it’s embarrassing.”
Johnson also said that Patel should be focusing on more pressing matters.
“Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, who should be taking on more important jobs, especially with so much controversy with Epstein files that has been going on recently,” Johnson shared. “… I feel like he should probably be staying home.”
Collegiate reporters Ari’ Browley, Karalynn Davis, Kyle Jackson, Catherine McArthur, Neveah Morofsky, Malaina Phebus, and Ashleigh Wolbrink contributed to this report.
