The Atlantic staff writer fumes over Trump's women's hockey joke during call with Team USA

A sports writer for The Atlantic took to social media to share her frustration over a joke President Donald Trump made when calling the U.S. men's hockey team to congratulate them on their win against Canada. 

During his phone call to the team, Trump said, "I just told my people … I said, we're giving the State of the Union speech Tuesday night … if you would like to, it's the coolest night," inviting the team to the event.

Trump then added, "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 going to have to bring the women's team, you do know that?" Trump said. 

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The team laughed, and Trump added, "I do believe that I would probably be impeached," appearing to suggest he would be impeached if he did not invite the women's team, who also won gold.

The women's team declined Trump's invitation to attend the State of the Union address.

Sally Jenkins, a staff writer for The Atlantic, responded on X to share her frustration over Trump's remarks. 

"To those on the men's USA hockey team who laughed at the prospect of sharing a White House visit with women, the NHL frequently trails the WNBA in ratings," Jenkins wrote in a Monday post. 

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In another Monday post, Jenkins wrote, "WNBA Viewership in US last season: 960,000+ per game. NHL Viewership: 440,000 per game." 

She also referenced medal counts from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, "Medals won by USA women in Milan: 17. Medals won by USA men: 12."

In a later post, Jenkins wrote, "Ooooohhh the bitterness of hockey guys! Yes, on average many more Americans watched WNBA games last season (969,000) than NHL games (440,00). You can ask Grok all you want and #s won't change. Handle it. Man much?"

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David Harsanyi, a senior writer at the Washington Examiner, challenged Jenkins' comparison of NHL versus WNBA ratings, and wrote, "Oof. This isn't exactly true, but even if it was, the proper comparison is the WNBA to the NBA and the NHL to PWHL." 

Jenkins responded to Harsanyi, writing, "I'm sorry - did I use the wrong fork? NHL games command less than half a million American eyes per game. There are MANY more women's sports that are more popular, including softball."

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Jennifer Sey, an author and founder & CEO of XX-XY Athletics, also took to X to call Jenkins out regarding her post on the amount of medals won by women versus men in the 2026 Winter Olympics and referenced a past column she wrote in 2000 about elite gymnasts.

Sey wrote, "This post from Sally Jenkins is pretty dumb. But at least it isn't as cruel and F-ed up as this piece she wrote in 2000 smearing gymnasts abused by both the Karolyis and Larry Nassar. She calls female gymnasts 'animatronic dolls' & when they dare stand up for themselves they're 'hissy pixies.'"

The Atlantic did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.