Trump stay updates: President tries on Olympic hockey gold medal and quips he’s ‘not giving it back’ | EUROtoday

After being introduced with an Olympic gold medal, President Donald Trump joked that he was “not giving it back.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the Republican president hosted members of the U.S. males’s hockey workforce on the White House after their historic gold-winning recreation on the Winter Olympics in Italy over the weekend.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming mentioned she invited Troy Lake, a person who served federal jail time for violating the Clean Air Act, as her visitor to the State of the Union.

Lake pleaded responsible to violating the federal regulation, regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, in June 2024 for instructing his staff to disable monitoring programs that guarantee heavy-duty industrial vans are complying with emission necessities underneath the act.

Lake served roughly seven months in jail earlier than being pardoned by Trump in November 2025.

“Troy is a hardworking American who was unfairly targeted by the Biden Justice Department. President Trump made the right call in pardoning him, and we look forward to attending tonight’s address,” Lummis wrote on X.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is delivering the Democrats’ affordability-focused rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union deal with.

Spanberger, who turned the primary lady elected governor of Virginia in November, is anticipated to concentrate on affordability, home instability and the way “ordinary citizens” are pushing again on the administration, in response to a preview of her speech seen by the New York Times.

“Virginians and Americans across the country are contending with rising costs, chaos in their communities, and a real fear of what each day might bring,” Spanberger mentioned in a press release.

“I look forward to laying out what these Americans expect and deserve — leaders who are working hard to deliver for them.”

Ahead of the State of the Union address, the Lincoln Project, a political action committee opposed to Trump, aired a video mocking the president for losing his tariffs case at the Supreme Court.

The video is a compilation of clips from Trump’s press conference Friday in which he lashed out at justices for ruling against him and declared the final opinion wrong.

“Donald, you must feel so dumb,” a voiceover says. “Even dumber than usual.”

There’s a better-than-not chance that President Donald Trump will mention aliens, AI and hockey during his State of the Union address this evening, according to Kalshi, a popular prediction market.

Team USA men’s hockey player Matthew Tkachuk offered Trump his gold medal during an Oval Office visit ahead of the president’s State of the Union address.

”I’m not giving it back,” Trump joked. “Hey that’s cool. I’d never thought I’d have this on.”

Top Democratic and Republican members of Congress have left a briefing at the White House with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, hours before Trump’s State of the Union.

The Iran-focused talks appeared to have rattled Senate Minority Leader Chuch Schumer.

“Look. This is serious, and the administration has to make its case to the American people,” he told reporters before walking away without providing other details about the meeting.

Five members of the men’s hockey team did not attend the White House event and won’t be watching the State of the Union in person.

Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets was practicing with his team Tuesday before a Wednesday game, he told reporters.

Goalie Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars is due to be with his team and is scheduled to practice Wednesday.

Brock Nelson of the Colorado Avalanche returned home to spend time with his family, according to the Denver Post.

Jake Guentzel of the Tampa Bay Lightning has also returned to Tampa, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Jackson LaCombe of the Anaheim Ducks was traveling back to southern California, according to the Sporting Tribune.

The White House has already cut together a video of the team’s appearance.

Robert Garcia, the top Democrat of the House Oversight committee leading congressional efforts into Jeffrey Epstein investigations, said the Trump administration is participating in the “single-largest cover-up in modern American history.”

“And who are we protecting? Why are we protecting powerful, wealthy, well-connected men?” he said while standing with survivors and lawmakers before the State of the Union address.

“Why are we protecting billionaires from justice?” he added.

Liz Stein, who says she was introduced to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 1994 when she was a senior in college, called on officials to check their “state of moral courage.”

“Human trafficking persists largely because of our cultural discomfort directly naming sexual violence,” she said.

“The crimes of Jeffrey Epstein were not committed in isolation” but with support from financial, social and political institutions that “looked the other way,” she added.

“Courage is contagious. But so is impunity,” Stein said. “History will not remember how carefully we avoided discomfort. It will remember how we demanded the truth.”