In February 2026, a video circulating on social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok claimed to show U.S. women's ice hockey team captain Hilary Knight declining an invitation to the White House from U.S. President Donald Trump. In the video, Knight supposedly claimed the team's refusal was about more than scheduling conflicts (the reason reportedly given by the team for declining). But there were several discrepancies between that video and a Feb. 25 interview Knight gave "SportsCenter". In the social media video, Knight spoke with strange pauses (or a lack thereof) and inflections that were not present in her interview on SportsCenter. In Knight's real SportsCenter interview, she called the president's words a "distasteful joke" that resulted in the women's on-ice victories being overshadowed.

Source: New York Times February 27, 2026 11:09 UTC